The Life of Lily
by DawnYew2674
Summary: Aged 9 Lily Evans knows she's different, she just doesn't know where this will take her. She thinks playing in the park with her friends and going to school with her sister are the best things she can do. After meeting Severus Snape and starting her new School, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Lily can't imagine what will happen over the next 11 years of her life.
1. Chapter 1 - Dry Water

**Chapter 1**

 **Dry Water**

'Lily!'

Silence.

'Lily! Come on Lily!'

Nothing.

'Everyone else has been found! You've won! You can come out now!'

'Lily! Lily!' a girls voice joined the boy's, 'Really, no tricks!'

No reply.

'I give up; if she really is out here then she knows that she's won. I'm going in.' Lucy said. She was short for her eight years. Her dark blond hair cut into a bob around her grubby face. She had on her red school jumper, streaked with mud; the black skirt wasn't much cleaner. Her knees and elbows were, as all children's should be, covered in mud and bruises. She traipsed back inside the suburban four bedroomed house, sliding her black school shoes of and leaving them on the doorstep, continuing on inside in her knee length once white socks that were rumpled around her ankles.

'Lily's Mum! We still can't find her!'

'Don't worry Lucy, she has to be somewhere, you'll just have to keep on looking.' The answer came from the kitchen, where Mrs Evans had just started to make tea for them. It smelt like baked beans and toast, Mrs Evans appeared to be scrambling some eggs as well.

'She's defiantly not upstairs.' Matthew said as he raced down the stairs to meet Lucy. 'Is Alex still in the garden?'

'Yes, he said he thought he heard her, but she's not behind the shed or anywhere.'

Matthew was also still dressed in his school uniform; however his was slightly cleaner than Lucy's due to him choosing a hiding place behind the sofa in the sitting room, rather than outside. At nine, he had a mop of brown hair and a square jaw giving his whole head a square like shape. He wasn't completely clean however; the whole of his right trouser leg was covered in mud obtained from the school field during a football tackle at lunch time.

Lucy and Matt together started to scour the ground floor of the house. Starting with the kitchen they peered into all the cupboards and into all the gaps that they thought their friend might have slithered into.

Lily was in fact outside; lying face down on the roof of her fathers shed. The back wall of the shed was right up against the wall of the house so she had no fear that she would be seen from the windows. To be able to see her you would have to stand at the bottom of the garden looking back at the house. From Lily's experience, it was not often that the person at the foot of the garden would scrutinise the roof of the shed. So all she had to do was lie still and wait.

She watched as Lucy went back inside, and then decided to change the game.

'Alex,' she whispered 'Alex'

'Lily!' he cried whipping around to see where the sound had come from. Alex was the eldest of the four, having had his ninth birthday six months ago in October. His blond hair was cut around a pudding bowl, leaving the hairs on the top of his head to grow much longer than those that grew underneath them.

'Shh,' Lily warned him, 'do you want to play sardines instead?'

'Where are you?' Alex asked

'Alex, are you going to hide with me?' Lily asked as her friend started to walk slowly back towards the house. She watched him go out of sight, wanting to speak but knowing that he was only using her voice to try and find her hiding place. This, however, was one of Lily's favourite hiding place and she wasn't going to give up the knowledge of it lightly.

Convinced that he was getting close, Alex opened up the shed doors and started hunting through the tools and toys that were kept in there.

Eventually, he came back out, certain that Lily wasn't hiding in there. He called out,

'Fine Lily where are you?'

'Not over there. I won't tell you where I am unless you'll promise to hide with me.' She replied, facing the wall so that it would be harder to tell where the sound was coming from.

'What, and not tell the others?'

'Yeah, see how long it takes for them to realise.' She replied grinning at the idea.

'Fine, you win. Where are you?'

'You have to promise you won't call the others.' She warned

'Lily,'

'Promise.'

'Fine, cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.' He called back.

'That you won't call the others when I tell you where I am.'

'Lily…

'Lily, come on, I promised,

'I promised that …'

'I promise that I won't call the others or tell them where your hiding place is.'

'I'm up here, on the shed.' Lily finally replied lifting her head up so he could see her.

'Lily! How did you get up there?' Alex called out in shock.

'Shh! The others will hear you!' Lily told him eyes wide checking for movement from the house. 'You climb up at the side round between the wall and the side of the fence.'

Alex walked around,

'Climb up the wall then you can just step onto the shed roof.' She instructed. There was a stone wall, almost as high as the shed, separating Lily's house from her next door neighbours. It was made of sand stone and the rough surface meant that it was reasonably easy for a nine year old boy to scramble up. Then from standing on the top of the wall Alex was able to step from the wall onto the garden shed roof.

'Lie down,' Lily instructed, 'I don't know if it can hold that much weight.'

Alex lay down his hair flopping into his face.

The two of them remained there, waiting for their friends to find them, giggling every now and then wondering what the other two were thinking.

By this time Lucy and Matt had finished searching through the ground floor of Mr and Mrs Evans's house.

'You're sure that she couldn't be up stairs?' Lucy asked for the millionth time.

'I'm sure.' Matt answered, 'I checked everywhere.'

'She's too good at this game; it's as if she can turn invisible!' Lucy cried exasperated, 'we've been searching for hours!'

'Hours and hours.' Matt agreed.

Suddenly Lucy spun around.

'What?' Matt asked

'Where's Alex?' she asked worried.

'You said he was in the garden …' Matt started,

'But that was ages ago. He should have come in by now.'

'Well it a big space,'

'Yes, but there can't be that many hiding places, it's mainly just grass.'

'Maybe we should check he's ok.' Matt said running to grab his shoes from the front door. Lucy headed into the kitchen and asked Mrs Evans if Alex had come back inside.

'No not yet,' was the reply. Lucy's eyes when wide, she could see most of the garden through the kitchen window. He wasn't there.

Shoving her shoes back on she flew out into the garden quickly followed by Matt.

'Alex! Alex! Where are you?'

'Alex?' Matt's voice joined hers.

Lucy ran the length of the garden checking behind the shrubs that Alex wasn't hiding behind them ready to jump out and scare her.

'Alex!' Matt called sounding worried for his friend. Above him on the shed roof Lily covered her mouth to stop herself from making any noise, her body shaking with laughter, Alex grinned and started to lift his head up from the roof felting so as to see his friends face. Realising what he was doing Lily shoved his head back down again, looking at Lucy, making sure they hadn't been discovered. Alex looked at her apologetically his head pressed firmly against the roof.

However, their game was cut short due to Lily's mother stepping out into the garden and calling

'Come inside now kids, Petunia's back, and it's tea time.'

'Alex, Lily! It's -' Matt began to shout but Mrs Evans soon cut him off

'I'm sure they heard. Don't worry, you two come in and wash your hands.'

Matt waited for Lucy to join him before turning to follow Mrs Evans inside. As soon as they had disappeared Lily and Alex sat up, howling with laughter.

'This is the best hiding place ever!' Alex eventually exclaimed when they had gained enough breath to be able to talk again.

'I know right,' Lily said grinning up at him as she climbed down the wall 'you won't tell the others will you?'

'Of cause not,' he answered making Lily look relived 'it wouldn't be such a good hiding place if everyone knew about it.' He said as he climbed down after her.

They kicked of their shoes at the door, and Lily attempted to brush herself down. She was doomed never to look tidy with her wavy red hair escaping from the plate that her mother had attempted to contain it with that morning, it clashed with the red of her school jumper which was creased all over due to the length of time she had spent lying on the shed roof. Her round face was smudged with dirt and freckles from the day's vigorous play, her knee high socks wrinkled around her ankles.

The pair of mischief makers quickly ran their hands under the tap and soon joined the others in the dining room where Petunia was setting the table.

'Where were you two!' came the cries of indignation as the pair entered the room. Lily grinned at her friends.

'If I told you that then it wouldn't be hide and seek.' Lily replied. Lucy stuck out her tongue at this response.

'You told him where you were.' She complained.

'Who said we were hiding in the same place?' Alex put in sharing a look with Lily. Matt rolled his eyes in response, but as neither two could come up with a good retort the conversation fizzled out.

Petunia passed Lily a handful of cutlery to spread out around the table. She looked nothing like her younger sister. Petunia had neat, dark, strait hair that was cut short around her skinny face. The two girls shared the same almond shaped eyes though Petunia's were pale blue compared to Lily's deep green. Petunia was tall for her ten years, with thin limbs, giving her the look of being stretched. Both girls were regarded as bright at the school they both attended, though Petunia preferred to meekly accept the information she was given by her teachers with a passion for English and other language based subjects. Lily, however, would be forever begging her teachers for the answered to her endless questions, her flare for science and the arts was well known by many of the teachers and she was well immersed in several lunch time activities including a drama club and singing lessons.

'Hi Tuney,' Lily greeted her sister on entering the room, 'How was your French lesson?'

'It was fun.' Petunia replied 'We were learning about les épicerie today.'

'What's that?' Matt asked looking up from the other side of the tale where he was setting out the glasses.

'It means groceries, as in fruit and vegetables.' Petunia informed him.

The table set, Mrs Evans entered with the food and the children helped to spread it around the table and the seven of them stat down to ear together. The four hungry children were silent as they ate, intent on filling their stomachs, so the conversation as left to Petunia and her parents.

'What did you learn about today in your French class?' Mr Evans asked his daughter. Petunia explained about things she could now order from a French shop from strawberries to ice cream. Eventually this became too much for Lucy.

'Lily's Mum do you -' she began but she was interrupted

'Lucy, my name is Calla,' she kindly reminded her.

'What does that mean?' Alex asked through a mouthful of baked beans.

'It's a type of flower,' Lily told him, 'like mine and Tuney's.'

'Well it's more a family of flowers.' Mr Evans corrected his daughter, 'With lots of different types of flowers within the family.'

'Isn't Lily a family of flowers though to?' Lily inquired, her forehead wrinkling in thought and confusion, 'because you can get different types of lilies can't you?'

'Yes,' her father replied warmly, 'but that's a smaller, more closely related group. Like you can get lots of different types of dogs but they're in one family called canids and they include wolves and foxes as well.'

'I always liked cats better, anyway.' Lily replied, causing a round of laughter.

By the time five o'clock came they had all finished their tea and were busy stacking all the crockery in the kitchen and it was time for Lily and Petunia to walk Lily's friends to their homes. With a chorus of 'Thank you Mrs Evans!' they trudged of down the road. Lily lived on the edge of Cokeworth and the countryside was obviously close. As the children walked along the pavement they could see the trees in a nearby copes rising above the new, regimented, semidetached housing. The Evans's road was a cul-de-sac, wide with a large turning circle for cars at the end. The children on the street often played together, kicking balls across the road or riding bicycles up and down the street.

Lily and Lucy led the way skipping along together though at the end of the road they stopped waiting for the others to catch up.

'Come on slow coaches!' Lucy called back. Petunia rolled her eyes; Lily saw and shared a grin with her older sister.

'Well maybe you two shouldn't be so keen to go home.' Alex joked when he caught up with the girls. Lucy stuck out her tongue in way of response.

Matt lived closest to Lily so he was dropped of first. And Lucy quickly followed him into her own home that was on the next street. Alex however lived on the other side of the park, and it was mainly the length of Alex's walk home that Mrs Evans didn't want the children to walk on their own. On the way back from Alex's house Lily and Petunia took a short cut through the park. It was a large grassy field marked out for football games with nets at either end that were removed when the football season was over. Down one side the field was split in two with a tennis and basketball court painted out on the tarmacked surface, next to this was a fenced off play area. This was where the roundabout, seesaw, swings and slide were located with soft grassy footing for the children to land on. Lily ran through the gate jumping onto the nearest swing, Petunia joined her on the swings and the girls laughing together as they talked.

Eventually, the nearby church clock chimed six o'clock and Petunia slid neatly of her swing.

'Come on Lily,' she coaxed the younger girl, 'Mum will get worried if we get back late.'

Rolling her eyes, Lily jumped of her swing meekly following her older sister home.

'You know Mum doesn't like it that much when you jump off the swings.' Petunia started. She said it kindly, not wanting to be a bore.

'I know,' Lily sighed, 'But I don't jump when the swing is that high. Alex and Matt jump when the swing is nearly higher than I do!' she explained her eyes growing wide.

'Don't let Mum catch them doing that!' Petunia warned 'she'll be certain that you do it too then.'

Lily laughed, 'She always worries too much. It's perfectly safe…'

Petunia laughed, 'You always take too many risks.'

'I haven't broken a bone in my body.' Lily reminded her sister triumphantly.

'Yet,' Petunia mumbled.

The next day was a Friday, the week before the last week in term. Only seven more sleeps until it was the summer holidays. Six days and thirteen hours. Six days twelve hours and fifty two minutes. Fifty one minutes.

Lily was bored. The rest of the class were doing maths problems, but she had finished hers. It was very nearly lunch time, so she had resigned herself to staring at the clock, watching the second hand tick around. Lily glanced across at her teacher, a woman in her forties with dark curling hair cut short. She was leaning over Lucy's shoulder checking her work. Lily glanced down at her work, and seeing for what felt like the billionth time that she had indeed completed all the questions. Then, to Lily's incredible enjoyment, the bell rang. There was silence for a moment, then the teacher let them go and the class started rushing out into the playground. They ran out filling into all the corners of the yard, the grass around it and, because it was summer and reasonably dry, across the bridge over the small stream into the playing field.

Lily and Lucy were among those who were in the field. They were sitting on the steep slope at the top of the field making daisy chains when the boys met them.

'You two are so girly when we're not here,' Alex started to complain.

'No, we're really not!' Lucy said standing up suddenly, 'We were just waiting for you, not doing handstands or the other stuff girls do.'

'You're making daisy chains!' Alex countered 'playing with flowers.' He continued in disgust,

'Wow,' Matt said 'we don't need to argue about it, come on what do you want to do now?' he asked changing the direction of the conversation.

'How about one, two, three done ya?' suggested Lily

'Yeah, I'll be on.' Matt said jumping at the opportunity

'The bridge is base!' Alex called as he ran off to find a hiding place. Matt ran to the bridge and started counting, his eyes tightly closed, Lucy glance at Lily,

'It wasn't that girly was it?' she asked sounding unsure,

'No, Lily agreed, 'He's just being an idiot.'

'Right,' said Lucy 'where are you going to hide?'

'I'm not telling! You might cheat!' Lily cried and ran off towards the trees that stood as a barrier along the length of the stream.

Her plan was to climb one and be able to spy on Matt, and then when he left the base she would be close enough to run up and get to the base before he saw her. However, the trees were quite close to the bridge and the ones that were better for climbing were on the other side of the water. She pressed herself close into the trunk of one of the larger trees, knowing she had no chance of climbing up it as its branches were much to high up to reach, but the girth of the trunk was wide enough to hide behind, though an obvious choice so she might have to move fast if Matt came towards her hiding place.

Lucy had disappeared somewhere else, Lily had not seen where as she had been forming her own plan, after glancing around the field once she chanced a glance to Matt. He was still counting, but she was sure that he wouldn't be for much longer.

About ten seconds later Matt turned around, standing still, looking for his friends amongst the jumble of students playing in the field.

The game was played by having one person on (Matt) and they had to find all the others, but different to hide and seek because those hiding could move around. If Matt were to find one of the others he would have to get back to the bridge and shout 'one, two, three done ya' to get them out. However, if one of the others managed to slip past him and reach the bridge before him and call out the same sentence then they would have beaten him.

Lily crouched right down to the ground so she could peer out at Matt from behind her tree and know that he wouldn't be able to spot her.

Matt wandered away from the bridge and out towards the centre of the field, Lily snuck forwards, her eyes attached to the retreating form of her friend. This, however, left the way in front of Lily unwatched. She started to creep around the back of the tree when her toe knocked against a protruding root catapulting her forwards. She splayed out her arms in front of her to brake her fall, but this was unnecessary. She had been creeping along the very top of the short bank and tumbled down into the mud and water that was the stream.

Lily stayed there, on her hands and knees in the muddy water, in shock and fear, eyes tightly shut. How was she going to get out of this? The mud, which she could feel between her fingers and down her legs, was sure to be covering her head to foot. The noise that she had made would bring a crowd of witnesses that would be able to stand before the headmaster; they weren't supposed to play near the stream. Lily knew that she already had a warning from behaving badly, not that she thought it was bad behaviour, but simply mistakes, like this one. What was she to do?

Lily took in a deep breath and pushed herself onto her feet and gingerly opened her eyes.

There was no crowd above her. And most amazingly no mud or water was apparent on her at all. She moved her feet in the defiantly muddy water, but when she lifted them above the surface they were perfectly dry and clean.

She couldn't believe it. It was if Lily was able to repel the water away from her. As if she was in some water resistant bubble.

Lily splashed her way across to the bank and scrambled up it. No one had noticed her disappearance, and her cloths were cleaner than they had been at the beginning of the day.

With the miracle that had occurred Lily had almost forgotten the game and was about to call out to Matt who she could see in the middle of the field, his back to her. When she realised that he was now far enough away that she could reach the bridge before he could, even if he saw her now.

Darting forward, leaving her cover behind her, Lily ran out directly for the bridge. Ten steps into her sprint Matt turned spotting the sudden movement. He turned and sprinted after her.

They were pretty evenly matched runners, but Lily had had a head start and reached the bridge first. Firmly planting both feet on the concrete,

'One two three done ya!' she yelled, as Matt came colliding into her.

'Lily,' Matt complained, a grin on his face, 'where are the others?'

'No idea.' She answered 'but you'll never believe this!' she explained how she had fallen into the mud and Matt listened disbelieving.

'But Lily, you're not covered in mud?'

'I know!' she exclaimed, 'that's what's so amazing. It's like the mud couldn't stick to me!'

'ONE, TWO, THREE DONE YA!' Alex roared in their ears,

'Lily! That's not fair, you distracted me.' Matt complained

'Sorry' Lily mumbled, looking upset, 'come on, and let's find Lucy.'

'she's there!' cried Matt, he cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting with all his might 'ONE, TWO, THREE DONE YA, LUCY!'

She was on the other side of the field and had been sneaking her way around a group of girls with skipping ropes.

'You're not supposed to just stick at base.' Lucy grumbled when she had reached them, 'That's cheating.'

'I didn't!' Matt complained, 'I –'

'You were stood here for ages talking to Lily!' Lucy countered

'Sorry, that was my fault.' Lily interjected, 'I fell in the stream and didn't get wet or muddy, and I was telling Matt.'

'You what?' asked Alex incredulous

'I fell in the river just now.'

'But you're not all muddy and wet.' Lucy pointed out.

'I know! It's amazing, isn't it?'

'Lily, that's weird.' Alex said, looking at her concerned.

'You're no lying, are you Lily?' Matt asked.

'No!' Lily almost shouted, 'It really did happen, I really did fall in! I, I wouldn't lie about this!' she added to her friends disbelieving expressions.

'Ok Lily,' Alex said still looking worried, 'I suppose strange things do happen around you,'

'It really did happen.' Lily said, quietening down.

'I think I believe you.' Put in Lucy, 'You never do get in trouble as much as you should.'

The four of them laughed at that, they could all think of occasions when Lily had managed to wangle her way out of trouble.

After a moment of silence Matt pointed out that as Lucy was the only one to be caught then it was her turn to be on and the other three went off to find new hiding places. Lily stayed away from the river.

After three more games the end of lunch bell had been wrung and the dinner ladies had managed to shepherd all the children back inside the school building again and all outside was quiet once more.

Lily spent the rest of the day wondering about the dryness of her cloths. She resolved to ask her father about it when he got home from work. He was a physicist and a lecturer at the University. If anyone would be able to explain how the events had occurred then he would, he knew practically everything about science.

'It sounds like you've got yourself some dry water there.' Her father joked. It was after dinner. He was washing up the last of the dishes and Lily was drying them. Petunia should have been putting them away in the cupboards but she had complained of homework and got off. Lily decided that this would be the best time to ask her father's opinion of her lunchtime experience.

'No, dad I'm telling the truth!' Lily complained. She was really quite close to her father and could always tell when he was joking, even when Petunia thought he was telling the truth Lily would always know. He always smiled with his eyes, even when he kept his mouth strait, his eyes would always smile when he was joking around with them.

'Honest, dry water Little Lils, I'm serious.'

'No you're not!' and she leaned over and splashed the washing up water at him. 'See its wet!' she pointed out grinning up at him.

'That's because it's not the special dry water.' He explained.

'Oh, I see.' Said Lily, 'I suppose the factory developing it is just upstream from school, and it had a leak at lunch time today.'

'Well I haven't heard about the leak yet.' Her father explained but by now he was struggling not to laugh. Lily put the glass that she had finished drying in the cupboard in the dining room and then came back into the kitchen.

'But really Dad, what happened?' she asked solemnly.

'Truthfully, I have no idea.' He said, confusion crinkling his forehead. 'I've never heard of that ever happening before.'

'I … I … what does it mean?' Lily asked tentatively

'I don't know.' He answered, 'But I promise Little Lils, I'll find out for you.' He smiled and Lily returned it. She knew she could trust her father.

 **This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:**

 **Harry Potter by J K Rowling**

 **The Lion the witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis**

 **The Life of Lilly by Ruth Notman (which inspired me to wright this whole story)**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Park

**Chapter 2**

 **The Park**

Finally the summer holidays had begun.

Lily woke up early on the first Saturday of the holidays. She was pleased to see that the sun was raising high into the cloudless sky.

Creeping out of her room and down the corridor to her sister's room, she hoped that she wouldn't wake up her parents.

'Tuney, Tuney, can we watch a video?' she whispered to her dosing sibling.

'Lily,' Petunia complained, rolling over to look at the clock, 'It's like six in the morning. Go back to sleep.' She whispered back.

'Please?'

'Fine, but I'm choosing.'

An hour later Mr and Mrs Evans came down the stairs to find their daughters engrossed in Disney's version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Petunia was trying to persuade her sister to fast forward through the section about the evil stepmother. Lily was having none of it.

'Lily, it's just the vultures, they scare me.' Petunia admitted.

'You chose this one!' Lily retaliated, 'If you didn't like it then we could have watched something else.'

'It's only this part.' Petunia insisted 'I like the part where she's singing to the animals, and when the prince takes her of to marry her at the end.'

'Urrgh, you're such a girl.' Lily complained. 'They're only birds anyway,'

'Lily! I don't like them! Please.'

'Urrgh,' Lily thrust her chin back, her head banging against the back of the sofa, as she finally handed over the remote.

By the time the film had ended, the sisters had forgotten all about their spat and happily settle down at the dining room table to eat their breakfast.

Mrs Evans turned to her daughters who were talking away over their bowls of cereal.

'What have you two got planned for today then?' she asked.

'May we go to the park?' Lily answered.

'Well perhaps,' their father said, 'do you want to meet your friends there, Lily, or is it just the two of you going?'

'Just us.' Cut in Petunia, Lily was starting to think that her sister didn't necessarily approve of her friends, but she had no proof yet, and was going to wait until her sister brought it up.

'Then of cause you can go this afternoon.' Their mother said smiling at her two daughters.

Lily spent the morning reading. It was fast becoming her favourite hobby, reading and playing outside. She was part way through a fictional adventure story, which was her favourite kind of book. This book was however, one that she already knew, though it was the first time she had read it. Her father often read to her and Petunia before they went to bed each night, and a few years previously this had been the book they had read through. It was one of those books that had long poems and songs written out in italics, when her father had been reading it she had insisted that he had read out the songs, even singing a few of them. However, now she skipped them out, they weren't important to the story line. She argued to herself. They were simply for someone reading who is interested in the culture and background to the story.

After lunch Lily and Petunia walked to the park. It was only five minutes from their house, and the girls often went there by themselves. Before letting them go, their mother had warned Lily to behave for her sister.

'Don't do anything that Petunia tells you not to, Lily. She knows what's safe.'

Lily had agreed, even though she hated it when her sister was bossing her around.

There was a group of five or six boys playing football at the other end of the field to the park. Lily thought they looked quite old, though they may have only been a year or two older than Petunia. They were shouting and yelling to each other, but apart from them the whole park was empty.

Petunia settled herself on a swing facing the football players, Lily wondered if she knew any of them from school. The boys, nevertheless, took no interest in the sisters, Lily was sure that they hadn't even noticed that they were there. She played for a while on the roundabout, but it was hard to spin it fast enough whilst siting on it, so she gave up and settled down on a swing next to her sister. Petunia was still watching the boys, who were now slowly making their way across the field towards the playground. Lily tried to start up a conversation with her sister, but Petunia wasn't interested in Lily.

As the boys came nearer, to Lily, they seemed to get bigger, and older. A couple of them seemed to recognise her older sister.

'Hay, that's Petunia Evans!' one of the boys near the front of the group called out behind him to the rest of the group.

'Do you know them?' Lily asked her sister, worried.

'They're in Year Six.' Petunia told her as if Lily should have already known.

'Evans, you should have come over and said Hi,' said the boy who had recognised Petunia.

'I had to look after my little sister, Tom.' Petunia told him, nodding towards Lily. Lily frowned, why would her presence stop Tuney from talking to the boys?

The boy called Tom jumped over the fencing that separated the swings from the field, Lily wondered why he didn't just use the gate like the boys who were slowly following behind him.

He was quite tall and obviously sporty; he had a haircut similar to Alex's though he had dark hair where Alex's was almost blond. He had on a red football top with blue shorts, but Lily didn't know which team that was. She and her friends weren't into football that much, they preferred making their own games up.

Petunia had stopped swinging and was dragging her feet on the asphalt, bringing the swing to a stop. Lily continued to swing back and forth. The boy had now reached the edge of the grass, where the asphalt under the swings started. His eyes' following Petunia's every move. His friends had hung back and were now leaning against the fence, watching.

'You never said you had a little sister,' he commented.

Petunia blushed.

'It never really came up.'

'Don't worry,' he told her walking even closer towards her, 'I think your more pretty.'

'Derk, come on. I'm hungry.' One of the boys called, opening the gate, leading the way out.

The boy looked around at his friends,

'See you then, Evens,' he said, following his friends out of the play area and down the road.

Lily watched Petunia's eyes follow the boy until he was out of sight.

'Do you fancy him?' she asked suddenly.

Petunia turned a shade of deep red,

'No.' she said too quickly.

'You fancy Tom Derk?' Lily said again, starting to swing higher and higher.

'Lily!' her sister complained, pushing off the ground. 'Lily, don't shout it round!'

Tuney fancies Tom Derk!' Lily sang louder.

'Lily, mum said you had to do what I said.' Petunia demanded, the suddenly scared, 'Lily you're going too high! Lily, stop it!' but her sister merely giggled and continued to swing.

'Tuney, look how high I can jump from!' she called down to her worried sister.

'Lily, don't do it!' shrieked Petunia.

But Lily had let go of her swing at the very height of its arc and flown skyward, she quite literally flew, launched herself skywards with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared, like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up for far too long, landing far too lightly.

'Mum told you to do what I said!'

Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips.

'Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!'

'But I'm fine,' said Lily, still giggling. Trying to distract her older sister from her previous behaviour Lily picked up a fallen flower from a nearby bush 'Tuney, Look at this. Watch what I can do.'

Petunia glanced around. The playground appeared deserted apart from the two of them. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was close enough to have a clear view, then she held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many lipped oyster.

'Stop it!' shrieked Petunia.

'It's not hurting you,' said Lily, disappointed at her sisters reaction, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground.

'It's not right,' said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flowers flight to the ground and lingered upon it. 'How do you do it?' she added, Lily was sure she heard a definite longing in her voice.

'It's obvious, isn't it?' Came a voice. A boy, about Lily's age, had jumped out from behind the bushes. Petunia shrieked and ran back towards the swings in surprise, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where she was. He was skinny under his mismatched cloths; too-short jeans, a shabby coat, overlarge, that might have belonged to a grown man and an odd smock like shirt. His overlong black hair fell in front of his chalky white face; a dull flush of colour mounted the sallow cheeks as he looked at Lily.

'What's obvious?' Lily asked curiously,

He had an air of nervous excitement. With a glance at the distant Petunia, now hovering beside the swings, he lowered his voice and said, 'I know what you are.'

'What do you mean?'

'You're … you're a witch,' whispered the shabby boy.

She looked affronted.

' _That's_ not a very nice thing to say to somebody!'

Turning her nose in the air, Lily marched off towards her sister.

'No!' said the boy. He was highly coloured now, in his over-large coat flapping after the girls, looking ludicrously bat-like.

The sisters considered him, united in disapproval, both holding onto one of the swing poles as though it was the safe place in a game of tig.

'You _are_ ,' he said to Lily, 'You _are_ a witch. I've been watching you for a while.' Then seeing her face he added 'But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I am a wizard.'

Petunia's laugh was like cold water. She was obviously still hurt about Lily's teasing and unsettled by the sudden appearance of this strange boy.

'Wizard!' she shrieked, then as her courage returned to, ' _I_ know who you are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinners End by the river.' She told Lily; turning again to the boy she asked 'Why have you been spying on us?'

'Haven't been spying.' Retorted the Snape boy, hot, uncomfortable and dirty haired in the bright sunlight. 'Wouldn't spy on you anyway,' he added spitefully to Lily's sister, ' _You're_ a Muggle.'

Though Petunia evidently did not understand the word, she could hardly mistake the tone.

'Lily, come on, we're leaving!' she said shrilly. Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at the boy as she left. Lily turned as they marched through the playground gate; he stood watching them bitter disappointment on his face. She wondered momentarily whether he had been planning this for some time, it had, evidently, all gone wrong.

Curled up in her bed at the end of the day Lily thought back to what the boy had said. Did he really mean that she was a witch? Was he really a wizard? Petunia said that he had just been bullying her, trying to make her feel insecure about herself, but Lily wasn't convinced. The look on his face had been genuine, she thought. He looked like he really believed that she was a witch. Could she really do magic?

'Abracadabra.' She whispered pointing at her wardrobe, but the doors didn't suddenly fly open, as she had expected, they hadn't even moved an inch. She was being silly, of cause she wasn't a witch. Hadn't she been watching Snow White that morning? Witches were evil. She wasn't evil, was she? And she couldn't do magic. No, she was being silly; the boy must have been lying like Tuney had said.

But then a thought came to her, what about the dry water? And hadn't she proved to Tuney at the park that she could make small things move without touching them? Hadn't she made the tree in their garden blossom early at Easter just by blowing gently on the newly grown buds? Hadn't she changed that awful bright pink dress of Petunia's into a nice shade of blue when her mother wasn't looking but had told her that she had to wear it?

'I can.' Lily whispered to the dark empty room. 'I am.'

Lily trailed behind her older sister, who was defiantly more excited than she was. It was sunny, without a cloud in the sky, probably the hottest day of the year so far. And yet they were going to be cooped inside for the next two hours. Probably the longest two hours of Lily's entire life.

As she dragged her feet along the pavement, Lily's mind went back to the previous Saturday when she had been told that she was a witch. Tuney had confirmed that she wasn't and witches only existed in stories, they weren't real. But that didn't stop Lily from wondering. There was all that stuff she could do. And the conviction of the boy in the park, he had seemed like he really was telling the truth.

'Come on Lily!' Petunia called back to her sister impatiently, bringing Lily back to the present.

It was of cause Tuesday, and dance class. Both Petunia and Lily had half an hour tap and ballet lessons. Lily's first, and then Petunia's. The walk was short enough for the girls to walk it themselves but too long for Lily to walk home without her older sister.

'Mum,' Lily had wailed, 'I'm nine now, I'm going to be in year five! Please, please can I walk home by myself?' But to no avail.

Lily normally cherished the time to walk with her sister. The girls were such good sisters. But Lily did not cherish the idea of sitting in a sweltering room for an hour watching her sister when she could be playing with her friends or having a water fight. It was the summer holidays! Her feet dragged along the hot pavement her dance bag, containing her shoes, skimming along the floor.

'Come on Lily,' Petunia encouraged, 'I bet she'll have the doors open and then you can sit outside.'

'Yeah, I guess, thanks,' Lily mumbled in reply. The sooner this was over the better in her eyes, at least this was the last class for ages, she did have the whole summer holidays to spend with her friends.

'You'll enjoy yourself when you're dancing.' Petunia couldn't have been more right.

Despite the heat, Lily really did enjoy dancing. Petunia, being a year and a half older and in a higher class, was much more technically correct, concentrating and perfecting the individual movements, but Lily had a love for the movement and flow, hating the exercises, loving the dances.

After her lessons she got changed and sat watching her sister for a while, then becoming distracted wandered out and sat on the step of the open door.

'Just stay where I can see you!' the teacher called out behind her.

'Okay,' Lily acknowledged.

From there on the step, Lily watched the cars and people pass by, the cars sending waves of the warm summer air that buffeted her hair across her face. Across the road was a row of houses, hidden from sight by a few trees, Lily watched the trees move in the breeze.

It was then that she noticed a figure watching her hidden in the shadow across the road. She stood up alarmed. She moved to go back into the dance studio. But the figure moved and she recognised the boy from the park. Not the older boy who had talked to Petunia. But the one who had called her a witch.

She hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether to go in or not.

In that hesitation the boy had crossed the road and was now standing on the pavement.

'I … I'm sorry about before.' He told her in a voice that sounded as if he didn't apologise very frequently. 'I … I didn't really introduce myself. I'm Severus.' He held out his hand, like an adult would do when introducing themselves to her father.

'I'm Lily,' she answered warily, gingerly taking his hand and shaking it, like her farther did.

'Being a witch isn't a bad thing.' Severus insisted as they dropped hands. 'It's a good thing, really.'

'But –'

'Lily who are you talking to!' called her dance teacher, interrupting her. 'You know you mustn't talk to strangers.'

'It's all right,' Lily informed her teacher as she came out to see who Lily was talking to, 'I've talked to Severus before.'

'I'm sure you have dear, but you need to come inside now.' And with only a small wave and a sad smile, Lily was steered inside once more.

'Who were you talking to?' Petunia asked as they set off for home at the end of her lesson.

'Oh, Severus, you know the one from the park,' Lily told her.

'What?' Tuney's mouth opened in shock. 'He turned up again? What did he say? Why were you talking to him?'

'I think I said about three words to him. Does that count as talking?' answered Lily moodily. She wasn't sure why her sister hated the Snape boy so much, and she wanted to get out of the blistering heat.

'Only if those three words were 'Don't talk to me''

But Lily didn't answer, not even to correct her sister in the number of words used. It was too hot to argue.

 **This chapter owes a large part of its existence to:**

 **Harry Potter by J K Rowling**


	3. Chapter 3 - One Small Step

**Chapter 3**

 **One Small Step**

Lilly watched the television screen with interest. It was a few days since her dancing lesson. In fact it was the 20th of June. A day that was going to go down in history, 20th of June, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

'What do the numbers and things mean?' she asked turning around to her father.

'They're telling the astronauts what is going on in the computer, sweetie. How far they have to go, and that one is counting down until they land.' Her mother answered.

'So we can see what they can see?'

'Yes, Lily,' her father answered, 'this is exactly what the people at the NASA space centre in America can see.'

'Oh, wow,' Lily said in awe.

'Shh, I can't hear what they're saying.' Petunia said. But it was then that the news presenter took over, explaining that this was what the astronauts were saying to each other and they were listening in. The whole family watched in silence as they were shown shots of people all over the world watching the Lunar Module slowly come into landing.

They came back to the astronauts with four and a half minutes to landing. The footage was reasonable poor, it was coming all the way from the moon and Australia so Lily reckoned it was acceptable. All you could see was the white outline of the rocket, a brilliant white fire behind it against the black of space behind them. The moon must have been there somewhere, or maybe it was the moon that was behind them, and the sun was on the other side.

Lily rubbed her eyes; it was past her bed time. But this was history in the making. She wouldn't miss this. You couldn't very well tell your grandchildren that you were asleep when the first men landed on the moon!

The shot changed. It was looking down on the Lunar Module with the crater covered moon behind it.

She giggled as one of the astronauts said 'oh boy' in response to some of the numbers being read out, earning her a glare from her older sister.

At less than a mile from the moon's surface the module was traveling at 92 miles an hour. That sounded quite fast to Lily, but according to the man on the television it was the slowest they'd ever flown in space.

Lily looked around at her family, all their eyes glued to the screen. Petunia was biting hard on her thumb looking worried. Lily wandered whether she was thinking about all the things that people had been saying about the moon's surface. No one seemed to know what it would be like. It could be extremely hot and burn the astronauts. Or maybe it would be so dusty from colliding meteors and asteroids that they would fall right into it and never be seen again. There were so many possibilities. And nobody seemed to know the answers.

The timer came back onto the screen at twenty seconds to landing. Lily chewed on her lip, her father's arms squeezed around her.

The space ship tracked across the screen. Rocks and small craters were passing down the television. They were coming in to land.

6 seconds to landing.

5

4

2

1

Then 'Ok, engine arm is off' and the words 'Lunar Module has landed on Moon' read across the bottom of the screen. Lily started to smile, not quite believing it.

'Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.'

'Roger, Tranquillity, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.'

And then the picture on the television went back to the news reporters. And they were talking about how they couldn't believe it but Lily wasn't really listening to them.

'There are two men, in a space ship, on the moon, right now!' Petunia exclaimed.

'I know!' Lily said her eyes wide, unable to quite believe it herself.

'Will they get out and walk around?' Petunia asked her father.

'I think that's the plan.' He answered a goofy grin on his face.

'Now?' Lily asked.

'No, they have to get lots of things ready before they can do that. I think they might have to sleep first as well.' Her mother said.

'If I was on the moon I wouldn't be able to sleep.' Petunia said, Lily agreed. It would be too exiting; you wouldn't want to waste time sleeping!

Lily didn't remember falling asleep on the sofa but she defiantly remembered her mother waking her up as the camera on the Luna Module was switched on and they could see Neil Armstrong climb down the ladder towards the surface of the moon.

Armstrong stood on the ladder and described the surface to be quite powdery and then the words 'Armstrong on Moon' came across the screen.

The picture itself was grey and grainy, though the contrast was good enough that you could pick out the shape of Armstrong's body as he stood there on the moon. There was a man standing on the moon.

'That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.' Armstrong commented as he stood there, on the moon. The first thing anyone had ever said whilst standing on the moon.

Then, after a few moments, Aldrin joined him on the moon and described what he saw around him as 'Magnificent desolation'. The two of them then carried out several procedures that they needed to do, such as taking photos of the module and the rocks they collected. Lily thought they looked like they were walking on a giant trampoline. Her father explained that it was because the moon was smaller so there wasn't as much gravity pulling them down.

Exiting a it was Lily could not help herself from closing her eyes. It was so late at night. Desperately she carried on watching for as long as she could. Her head drooping onto the sofa arm, she had to watch this.

At the end of the broad cast, her father took her and Petunia out into the garden. They looked up, watching the moon, knowing that as they watched it there were two men, in their space craft, on the moon.

Lily looked up in wonder, that is the furthest those three men have ever been from home, the furthest any one has been from home. They must feel a little home sick. The slightest problem and they may never get home again. But she didn't think anything would really go that wrong. They wouldn't send people into space unless they thought it was completely safe. They'd sent enough guinea pigs.

The moon landing was all that anyone could talk about for the next few weeks. It was constantly all over the newspapers, and almost every conversation started with;

'Did you see them on the moon?'

'Where were you when you watched the moon landing?'

' 'One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind' !'

And everyone was asking who would be next? Would the Russian's go to mars? How many years before anyone could travel to Pluto? Forget Pluto, could we travel to the edge of the universe?

This generation was going to be the one that pushed all the boundaries of science.

Not just star gazing, actually traveling to the stars.

Leaping of earth.

A new chapter in the history books.

Several weeks passed by and the summer holidays were coming to an end. Lily played out in the garden often. With her friends or her sister or just by herself.

She enjoyed escaping from the house. She could lie on top of the shed and read her book or watch the birds and insects fly around her in the summer air. She had fun, played games. But she couldn't help as more and more often she could make things happen that others couldn't.

At night as she lay in bed she could make her bedroom door open and close without touching it, just but thinking. She could hide from people much better than any of her friends, if she didn't want them to see her, they couldn't see her. And every time unusual things happened, Lily often reaped the benefits.

She wanted to talk to the Snape boy again. To ask him if he really was telling the truth, or lying like Petunia said he was. But she could never find him. It was as if he had disappeared of the earth like the astronauts (though they had come back now). And Lily didn't dare go and look for him. Petunia had said that he lived down by the river, but that was too far away for Lily to walk there by herself and she knew Petunia would not go with her. So Lily contented herself to look out for him whenever she was out. He had to show up at some time.

She spent the remainder of the six week holiday reading. She had just managed to persuade her parents that she was old enough to read The Jungle Book by herself. It was one of her mother's books from when she had ben young and Lily was really enjoying it.

She loved the way that the animals were personified and the way that Mowgli preferred his brother wolves to the humans or other animals who had felt pushed into accepting him. And she found that she much preferred the ending in the book to the one in the film. It was much better that Mowgli killed Shere Kahn and went back to his wolf brothers (yet not the whole pack) than the fairy tale version from Disney.

Lily persuaded her friends to play games based on the book, and it often ended up with them talking Alex's Irish setter dog, Dempsey, out down to the cops of trees down by the river. Lucy didn't approve of these types of games as they often all ended up soaking wet swimming in the river or building dens and painting their faces in mud and catching all sorts of insets which they tried to identify, often unsuccessfully. And so this left Lily and the boys to most of these games.

Eventually, however, the six weeks of sun and fun came to an end and September cam and with it school. Lily was exited. She was in year five now. She was going to be ten in January, double figures. The classes had switched around this year as usual and Lily found herself in the same class as Alex and Matt, but not Lucy. Lily worried that Lucy would feel left out of their friendship group as she was in a class without them. But she needn't have worried. Lucy was in the same maths group as Matt and the four of them spent all their time at play times and lunch together as before. The two classes were often mixed together as a year group for many projects throughout the year and so Lily got to spend plenty of time with all of her closest friends.

All through September and October people kept on wondering about the moon landings and what the Russians would do next. It was rumoured that they would send a man to Mars! Maybe in a few years, defiantly by the time Lily had children people would be living on Mars, if not Pluto. The infinite size of the universe seemed much smaller now.

By the time November was drawing to a close and school was starting to prepare for Christmas. The weather was cold and raining so the children were cooped up inside during afternoon break. Lily, Lucy, Alex and Matt were sitting around a table in Lucy's classroom supposedly completing a jigsaw, but actually discussing what they would most like for Christmas.

'I asked for a rabbit,' Lucy was saying. 'But my mum said that they're too difficult to look after. She said she might get me a cat, though.'

'What would you call it?' Matt asked.

'It would have to have a really good name,' Alex said. 'Not something boring like fluffy or mittens.'

'It would depend on the colour.' Lucy explained, 'and the type of cause. I think a black one could be Bagheera or a tabby as Shere Khan.'

The four of them burst out in laughter.

'That would be a great name!' said Matt. 'And not sissy at all.'

'Yeah, well…' said Lucy smiling at him. 'What are you getting?' she asked changing the subject.

'I want a skate board, or maybe a BMX bike!' Matt said excitedly. 'My brother got a skate board last year but he won't let me borrow it.'

'A bike would be cool though.' Alex said. 'I'm learning how to do tricks on mine, but it's just a normal bike so I can't do all the cool ones.'

Lily and Lucy shared an exasperated look as the two boys went off into a conversation about bikes.

'A cat sounds fun.' Lily said as the boy's became absorbed into their own conversation. 'I'm not allowed real pets because Tuney hates animals. She says they bring mud and disease into the house.' She explained scrunching up her face in annoyance.

'You'll have to come around to see my kitten lots then.' Lucy said encouraging her friend. 'Petunia can be such a neat freak some of the time.'

'Yeah,' Lily agreed, and the girls fell into silence finishing up the puzzle as the boy continued their conversation animatedly.

Lily lay under her bed.

She wasn't hiding exactly, more being somewhere on her own, where no one would disturb her. She would have normally gone outside into the garden and onto the roof of the shed, but it was too cold for that really.

She lay on her back, her fingers running u and down the wooden struts only a few inches from her face. She was thinking. Thinking about boys and how peculiar they could be sometimes. Focusing mainly on the one boy. Who tells someone that their a witch and then avoids them for the next five months? Where was he? And why wasn't he talking to her?

Lily had seen him on two occasions since her dancing lesson all those months ago. Once while she Lucy and Alex had been at the park and once on her way to school with Petunia. Both times he had ducked out of sight before she had been able to do more than shout hi. And when she had gone to where she had seen him he had disappeared, as if by magic. Maybe he really was a wizard, like he had said. But why was he spying on her? That was her greatest question. Why spy on her when she already knew who he was, when they had already talked? Didn't he want to be friends? She had thought he had, but maybe she was wrong.

Lily continued to puzzle over this. Her thoughts going around and around in circles until she heard her father calling up the stairs,

'Lily! Petunia! Come and set the table for dinner!'

'Coming,' she replied rolling out from her hiding place. She jumped down the stairs two at a time and walked into the kitchen. From the top draw she collected the cutlery and proceeded into the dining room to lay the table.

Petunia entered a few minutes later with a stack of four plates. As her sister began to spread them out across the table Lily plucked up her courage.

'Tuney, do you remember that Snape boy who was spying on us at the end of last year?' she asked her sister.

'Yes. What do you want to know about him for?' Petunia replied warily.

'I was just wandering how you knew about him? I've never seen him at school.' Lily continued knowing she was far from solid ground.

'That's because he's home schooled. That's what Tom Derk said.'

'Who's that?' Lily asked, her sister had never mentioned his name before

'He's Jessica's brother.' Petunia explained. 'The year above me, he's at Senior School now.'

'Wait I have seen him.' Lily remembered. 'He was at the park the same day that the Snape boy was. You fancy him!' she suddenly accused.

Petunia turned red.

'No, no, I don't. He's Jessica's brother, that's all.' But Lily wasn't buying it at all.

'You do!'

But it was then that her mother called from the kitchen.

'Girls, the table better be clear. Dinner is ready.'

So there conversation was closed for the time being. But Lily was determined to bring it back up and get the truth out of her older sister, about both Tom Derk and Severus Snape.

Lily being Lily, of cause she found the answers to her questions. Although with her sister she knew she had to be patient. Petunia was looking out for Lily to catch her into conversation about Severus Snape and Tom Derk for the next week so Lily left it a good two weeks before she even considered broaching either subject again.

Her opportunity was much better than she could ever have suspected. It came a week before the end of the school term two weeks before Christmas. Petunia and Lily always walked home together, at least they had to appear to do so though Lily occasionally walked ahead with her friends and Petunia with hers. On this particular Friday afternoon Petunia and her friends Mary, Susan, Lisa and Jessica were planning on walking home together. Mary was Matt's older sister and so Lily knew that she would be able to talk to him if Tuney and her friends became too boring. And Susan and Lisa lived close to each other. Jessica, however, was in Petunia's group but they were not close enough for Petunia's little sister to know where she lived.

Lily came out of school and waited at the top of the steps for her sister and friends to congregate. She expected to be waiting alone for a while s her class had been let out slightly early. And if she had been waiting with anyone she would have expected it to be Matt or one of Tuney's friends. Not Tom Derk.

He had been waiting at the school gates but on seeing her, he came over and stood next to her.

'Your Petunia's sister.' He told her.

Lily looked at him for a minute, her eyes slits, deciding whether she should trust him, stranger danger and all that.

'I am, am I?' she replied.

'Yes. I saw you at the park with her in the holidays, remember. She said you were her sister.'

Lily watched him, she wanted him to feel like she was a force to be reckoned with, that she had to be told the truth.

'But I don't know you. I shouldn't talk to you.' She said and turned her head away.

'Come on. I'm friends with your sister. You can trust me.'

Lily folded her arms.

'You've never been to our house before.' She told him stubbornly.

'I'm Jessica's brother. You know Jess right.'

'So you're not really friends with my sister. Your sister is friends with my sister. You don't know me.'

'But I want to be friends with your sister.' He told her. And Lily realised that she now had ammunition. He had said a little bit too much.

'Anyone could say that.' Lily countered. And then 'But you fancy her don't you.'

Tom Derk went bright red, and Lily knew she had hit her mark. She had suspected as much the first time she had seen him, but know she was sure.

'I didn't say that.' He said sounding a little angry.

'No, I did.' She told him smirking. 'Don't worry I'm pretty sure Tuney fancies you too.'

'Really' Tom Derk said scarcely hiding his enthusiasm.

'Yeah, I recon you could probably kiss her now if you wanted to.' Lily said nonchalantly, and then pulled out her ace. 'But know I've told you something, and I said the truth, so you have to too.'

'What do you want to ask?' he questioned.

'Tell me everything you know about Severus Snape.'

'What? What do you want to know about him? You know he lives on Sinners End, right? Spinners End.' He repeated for emphasis.

'That's one thing. You must know more.' She told him ignoring his reaction. 'Or I could just tell my sister you fancy her.'

However, before Tom Derk could answer her they were interrupted.

'Lily!' Matt called as he raced up the steps towards them.

'Is this your boyfriend?' Tom Derk asked venomously.

'No,' Lily replied, 'I'm nothing like my sister.'

Then Matt caught them up and they stopped their conversation.

On the walk home Lily conveyed to her friend all that she had found out from Tom Derk, leaving out Severus Snape. Petunia was walking at the back of the group between Jessica and her brother, supporting an almost continual blush. Lily wondered what they were talking about. But as her sister was not continually glaring at her she hoped and assumed that Tom Derk had not mentioned their conversation. Lily wondered aloud whether Tom Derk would take her advice and kiss her sister. At this comment Matt stopped in his track from disbelief that Lily had actually told him to do that, causing Lily to giggle.

'I was trying to make him say that he really fancied my sister and make him think I was just a stupid nine year old at the same time!' she explained

Matt laughed 'Did it work?'

'I think so, he did say that he fancied her at least' Lily replied desperately trying to conceal her laughter, and Matt pulled a face in disgust.

It was at this point that Jessica and her brother turned off down an alleyway where the others continued on along the road. Tom Derk caught up with Lily and Matt.

'You better not let slip a word of our conversation.' He threatened as if there was much more than just two years separating their ages.

'Only if you agree to finish it.' Lily replied drolly. He gave her a scathing glance over his shoulder as he re-joined his sister who was waving goodbye to her friends. Lily and Matt fell into peals of laughter as soon as the pair were out of sight.

'His face,' Matt managed to gasp. 'Did you see his face?' causing Lily simply to laugh even harder.

 **There was lots of school years mentioned in this chapter and I just thought for those of you who may not be familiar with the 1960's English school system I should explain it, so no one gets confused in later chapters**

 **You start school aged 4 (those born in the summer months start after Christmas) and the first school year is called Reception after this you go into year 1 then 2 etc up to year 6 (started aged 10 and become 11 during the school year) that was Primary School. (this can be split into Infants (Reception to year 2) and Juniors (year 3 to year 6)**

 **Aged 11 you start Senior School the first year of this was called 'first year', 'S1' (Senior 1) or 'first form' (now called year 7) the years then go up the same as before until fourth year which could also be known as lower forth and then fifth year as upper forth or the years consistently as fourth and fifth year depending on the school. It was possible for brighter children to miss out fourth year and skip to fifth (or upper forth) and complete your O levels (now GCSE's or at Hogwarts OWL's) a year early. After this you go into lower sixth (sixth year) and then upper sixth and complete A levels (NEWT's for Harry) (there were no AS levels then) O and A levels were nationwide exams that are all identical and all students across England and Wales sit them at exactly the same time. It was possible and common for students to drop out from school aged 16 after O levels**

 **Sorry if that's confusing or you knew it already but I'll do a quick recap**

 **Age**

 **4-5 Reception** **Primary School** **(Infant School)**

 **5-6 year 1**

 **6-7 year 2**

 **7-8 year 3 (Junior School)**

 **8-9 year 4**

 **9-10 year 5**

 **10-11 year 6**

 **11-12 1** **st** **year** **Senior School** **(now year 7)**

 **12-13 2** **nd** **year (year 8 etc.)**

 **13-14 3** **rd** **year**

 **14-15 4** **th** **year or lower 4** **th** **(some students miss this year out and complete O levels in 1 year)**

 **15-16 5** **th** **year or upper 4** **th** **O levels taken this year (possible to finish school now)**

 **16-17 Lower 6** **th**

 **17-18 Upper 6** **th** **A levels taken this year (possible to finish school now or go to University)**

 **This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:**

 **Harry Potter by J K Rowling**

 **watch?v=sJv5_y2l5as &list=PL0ADCA6F9DFADA36D**

 **The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling**


	4. Chapter 4 - Lucy's Lie

**Chapter 4**

 **Lucy's Lie**

Lily woke up suddenly on the thirtieth of January. It was her birthday. She was ten now. She sat up crossing her legs under her bed covers and listened to hear if any of her family was awake. It was a rule in their house that you weren't allowed to go downstairs on your birthday without everyone else being there. This meant that presents couldn't be unwrapped or the cake be seen without her parents being there.

Having decided that no one else was awake, Lily climbed out of bed and tiptoed, still in her nightie, into her sister's bedroom.

'Tuney, Tuney, wake up.' She half whispered to her sister.

'Lily' was her mumbled reply.

'Come on Tuney. It's my birthday.'

'Urrg, fine then.' And Petunia sat up in bed.

The two girls then crept down the corridor to their parent's room.

'Wake up! Wake up!' Lily flung open the door and bounced into the room. Mr and Mrs Evans were already awake and sitting up in bed. Lily clambered onto the covers kneeling up but still bouncing, Petunia hung back in the doorway.

'Please can we go downstairs now,' Lily begged

'And why would you want to do that?' her father asked hardly concealing his grin. Lily stuck her tongue out at him and turned her pleading face to her mother.

'Fine then, of you jump.' Her mother conceded lifting up the bedcovers causing Lily to role backwards to the end of the bed. But Lily was too excited to compline and bounced of the bed over to her sister. Grabbing Tuney's hand Lily exited the room followed slowly by her parents.

At the top of the stairs Petunia managed to shake of her little sister, who then proceeded to leap down the stairs two at a time landing cat like on the floor at the bottom and run to the dining room door stopping briefly to call encouragements back to her following family.

The dining room was completely covered in decorations. Balloons were hung from the light fittings, colourful streamers were draped across the table and all the furnishings, the room looked so lively and colourful. The large pale oak table, placed in the centre of the room, was the most vibrant. Piled high across the table were all the presents Lily had received from her friends and classmates the previous weekend at her party, jungle book themed obviously. She had not yet been allowed to open these, mixed in with them were the presents from her grandparents, aunts and uncles and, best of all, her parents. Sitting in front of the brightly wrapped gifts was an amazing birthday cake surrounded by a selection of envelopes addressed to Lily.

The cake was a master piece, Lily had seen it at her party but it still looked amazing now. It was of cause Bagheera, in 3D. Her mother always made the girls homemade cakes, and as they had grown up these cakes had become more and more amazing. This was a Swiss role cake slightly curved around the edge of the plate with his head at one end, made from left overs from the body of the cat with the whole thing covered in thick black icing and the legs and tail sculpted from more icing.

Lily had no idea how to express her joy and excitement, she simply stood at the end of the room not wanting to move and spoil the picture and at the same time wanting to dive right in and see how many presents she could open before it was time to leave for school.

* * *

'So what did you get for your birthday?' Alex asked as they hung their coats and bags up in the cloakroom area in the classroom.

Lily grinned at him and started to describe the bicycle that her parents had bought for her. It was new, well new to her and it had been repainted so it looked new too, and the framework was all bright red. And her Aunt Katherine had given her a book that she was really excited to start reading, called 'The Hobbit' b Tolkien. But then by that time Matt walked into the classroom and she had to start from the beginning all again. But Matt was really excited about seeing her new bike and proposed going out, all four of them, for a bike ride, maybe down to the woods by the river or somewhere like that. So they agreed that they would ask their parents about it and ask Lucy if she would be able to join them.

That lunchtime they all met up in Lucy's classroom and they proposed the bike ride to her, while they shared out the cake that Lily's mum had put in her lunchbox for her and her friends. Lucy seemed keen to join them but asked if they could explore further up the river rather than simply stopping at the woods as they would all be traveling faster. The others agreed that that would be great fun.

That Saturday Matt and Lucy cycled around to Lily's house where she was waiting with her shiny new bike. Mrs Evans stood in the doorway to wave Lily off, just checking that the new bike fitted Lily.

'By Mum!' Lily called as they got to the end of the street before disappearing out of view.

'Stay safe and don't do anything stupid!' her mother called back casing the three of them to giggle

'We'll be fine!' came the reply, and then they were around the corner.

It took them ten minutes to cycle to Alex's house, rather than the usual fifteen it took to walk, so they arrived just as Alex was getting his bike out. After he had said goodbye to his parents the four children grabbed their bikes and were off.

Alex lived quite close to the river so it wasn't long before they reached the small cops of trees that had been their original destination.

'Lucy, you were right,' Alex called to her as they passed the trees, 'the woods were too close.'

'Now we can do some proper exploring!' Alex shouted in his excitement. The others grinned at each other and started peddling faster their exhilaration almost a visible force pushing them forwards.

A mile further along the road the river curved away to the left but a small track lead off towards the river and they decided to explore along the track and stay close to the river. As they had guessed the track did not cross the river but follow up someway on the right hand side of it. Soon the track opened out and became grassy, but with all the rain they had recently had there were many puddles and muddy spots that had to be avoided so the pace slowed down. At least the girls avoided the puddles. Matt and Alex relied on their mudguards and waterproof coats to keep them reasonably dry and clean as they plunged from one muddy puddle to the next.

Eventually the track came to a run down, unused barn. Jumping off their bikes they lent them against the wall on the inside and explored the darkness. Looking up they could see the holes where the beams would have once gone across holding up the hay loft over one half of the empty building. At the back of the barn they found several large stones that had been pushed up against the back wall. It wasn't too dark here but sitting down they discovered that they couldn't be seen from the entrance. Matt took of his rucksack and began searching inside it. He brought out several squashed sandwiches, a water bottle (which turned out to be filled with lemonade) and a large bar of chocolate.

'Good enough for a picnic.' He said as he handed the food around. Alex laughed but did comment that really it should have been ginger beer rather than lemonade to make it a real Enid Blyton adventure.

'Yes!' Lily exclaimed, 'We could be the famous five!'

'I'm Anne.' Lucy chimed in,

'And Lily can be George,' said Matt

'Oh, Alex you should have brought your dog' Lily said

'Yeah, Dempsey would have made a great Timmy.' Alex groaned

'You'll have to bring him next time we go on an adventure.' Matt said, and Alex promised.

With that all settled and all the lunch eaten they pushed their bikes out of the deserted barn and set of riding again. Lucy seemed tired or maybe slightly upset about something and was lagging along at the back. At this point the track they were following was following the river very closely and often was right along the riverbank. Although they had been cycling for someway up river, it was still wide and reasonably fast flowing at some points and much cleaner than it was close into the city.

After another hour of cycling Matt, who was in the lead, turned around on his saddle to check with the others whether they wanted to carry on or to turn around and head back, but no sound passed his lips apart from a sought of muffled yelp. The look on his face caused the others to stop suddenly and turn as well.

Lucy had somehow fallen off her bike and had landed in the middle of the river. In summer the others would have still been concerned but laughed it off as she would have really been fine. But this was the middle of winter. The river was freezing cold.

Lily, closest to Lucy, dropped her bike and ran to try to get level with her. The boys quickly followed screaming her name.

'Lucy! Lucy!' but the girl in the river made no reply the shock plane on her face and in her wide eyes. The current dragged her into the middle of the river, sweeping her further and further from her friends.

'Swim Lucy!' Matt yelled at the top of his voice.

'Come on, Lucy Swim!' Alex joined in, an at last she began to move, but her pitiful effort made no impact on the current.

'Grab that tree!' Lily suddenly yelled as her friend was swept under the trailing branches of a weeping willow. But Lucy never got the chance to respond to the command because as soon as the words had left Lily's mouth the tree itself responded. The branches that were close to Lucy suddenly coiled themselves around her body and swept her through the water to the river bank.

Everyone stopped moving. They all looked at Lily in shock and amazement. As the tree unwound itself from Lucy she suddenly jumped up. Dripping wet and freezing cold, she marched up to Lily yelling at the top of her voice.

'What did you do! You freak! Everyone knows your weird and you do weird stuff but do not do your freaky stuff on me!' Lucy then marched off up to her bike, jumped on it and started peddling away as fast as she could.

'But you saved her life?!' Alex sad after a moment's pause as the three of them took in what happened.

'Did you do that?' Matt asked

'I … I … I don't know. Maybe… I … I think so.' Lily stuttered out. Shocked by her friend's violent reaction.

'I'm going to make sure Lucy's alright!' Matt called as he ran to get his bike.

As Matt rode past them Lily sank to the ground. Alex came over and sat next to her on the river bank.

'Are you alright?' he asked after a few minutes. He looked up at Lily and saw that tears were running down her cheeks. Awkwardly he shuffled closer to her and placed his arm around her shoulders. 'She's just in shock, you know. Lucy didn't mean all that stuff. Honesty. On Monday, you'll see.' He comforted her.

'I'm sorry.' Lily sobbed her head resting on his shoulder.

'Sorry for what?' he asked gently.

'All this. It's all my fault.' She generalised melodramatically trough her sobs.

'Don't be silly.' He replied but this only brought on even more sobs.

'Lily?'

'What's everyone going to say?'

'Lily! Right, come on I'm taking you home.'

But Lily was in no state to ride her bike so they ended up pushing them most of the way back. Alex, a good as his word, walked Lily right back to her door. And tried to explain what had happened to them, but Mrs Evans didn't seem to understand everything. Lily was no longer crying but she still looked in a state and was rushed inside to warm up again. Alex was thanked and asked if he wanted walking home, but he declined explaining that he had his bike and would be fine.

'So not such a good day for a test run of your new bike.' Lily's father joked as he tucked her into bed that night. Lily hiccupped and gave a slight sob in reply. Her father chuckled, hugged her and kissed her good night, sure that come Monday it would all be fine.

They could have not been more wrong.

* * *

Lily, Matt and Alex didn't get a chance to find Lucy before afternoon playtime. Normally they would have met up with her at morning brake and lunch time, but no one seemed to know where she was. Matt had asked some of Lucy's new friends from her class if they knew where she was but they had replied that they weren't allowed to tell him.

By the end of lunch they were all worried about her, and everyone from the other class in their year were giving Lily dark looks.

They found her eventually at afternoon brake hiding behind the yea four classrooms. She was with two of her new friends from her class. Lucy seemed really upset and the other two girls were comforting her.

'Lucy, we were worried about you. Where have you been?' Lily called rushing towards her. But this seemed to be a mistake.

'Stay away from me!' Lucy called out in sudden panic, her new friends stood in front of her, protecting Lucy from the others.

'Lucy, what happened?' asked Matt

'Don't act dumb,' was the muffled reply, 'you were there when she did it.'

'When who did what?'

'When that freak tried to drown me!'

'What?' put in Alex, 'No one tried to drown you!'

'Yes she did! She waited until I was at the back so none of you would notice, and then She used her freak powers to push me down into the river and then petrify me so I couldn't possibly move, so I couldn't swim to the bank and save myself. She wanted to drown me! And then its only because you looked around, Matt, that you noticed what was happening and then She had to pretend that it was an accident and called out for me to grab onto the tree which I tried to do but then she made the tree move and try and hold me under the surface of the freezing water but her concentration was broken by you two trying to help me and I managed to struggle my way out of the tree's grasp and swim to the bank. And then She covered her tracks because by the time that I had cycled home I was completely dry, I hadn't even caught a cold, and my own mother didn't believe that I had even got wet, let alone nearly been drowned, on purpose, by that freak!' Lucy then fell into hysterical cries and her new friends quickly fell into comforting her.

'Don't worry we won't let her get to you,'

'We'll protect you from that awful girl.'

'What!' Lily almost screamed Matt an Alex also held indignant looks on their faces. Lucy took a shuddering breath but before she could make her accusation Lily had stormed off the tears in her eyes threatening to overflow.

Alex immediately tore after her, but Matt hesitated. He seemed unsure of who to comfort for a moment. Then with a scathing look towards Lucy he ran after his friends.

He found Lily sat on the steps in front of their year five classroom crying for all she was worth. Alex was sitting on the step next to her trying to reassure her that she wasn't a freak and Lucy was just being horrible but she would come around. Matt doubted that Lucy would change her mind; she really could be quite stubborn. He decided not to mention it as he sat down on the other side of his weeping friend.

It didn't take long before the teacher on duty noticed that Lily was crying. The boys tried to explain what had happened, Lily was in no state to talk, but the teacher struggled to understand the whole situation. He did, nevertheless, promise to go and speak to Lucy and the boys were sure that he would see right through Lucy's lies.

They didn't see Lucy for several months after the incident; however they were well informed of what she was doing. Although she had not managed to convince the teachers of her story, somehow she had managed to persuade many of the students that her tale was true. These pupils would shy away from Lily as soon as they noticed her, and repeat and remodel the original story amongst themselves.

It took months for Lily not to burst into tears every time someone called her a freak. And that was way too often. Alex and Matt barely knew what to do, both caught between the immense army of pupils backing Lucy's fabricated tale and their friend. Both of them decided that Lily was almost defiantly the victim in this situation, however Lucy played it. They tried everything they could think of but nothing seemed to work. They quickly found themselves with a thinner and thinner backing of people, until they discovered that the three of them alone in their year believed what really happened that fateful Saturday.

As March drew to a close and April began, Lily Alex and Matt were amazed that Lucy had managed to keep her episode topical. By this stage the boys had managed to convince Lily to see the funny side of it, and when Kimberly Barrette suddenly backed away from Lily, her fingers making the sign of the cross Lily couldn't help but burst out laughing.

The three of them then took to musing over the different versions of the story they had recently heard. By the last week before the Easter holidays the favourite story was that Lily had jumped into the ice covered river after Lucy but had failed to be able to break the ice (as Lucy had managed to land on the thickest part of the ice). Alex claimed that he didn't enjoy this version of the story because there was no gigantic waterfall in it for them both to fall down. But Lily said that she liked that it had much less magic in it than the original tale that Lucy had spread.

'Was it magic or just freakish powers?' Matt asked as they walked up the steps at the end of the day.

'I think it was freakish powers, cause she really wanted everyone to call you a freak.' Alex said.

'Yeah,' Lily agreed, 'the magic came later.' Then she suddenly stopped recognising someone waiting at the top of the steps.

'You owe me a conversation.' She suddenly accused.

'What?' said the boy, he was tall and sporty defiantly older than the three of them with a dark mop of hair on his head.

'I'm Petunia's sister.' Lily said as if that explained everything.

'Oh,' he said 'did this conversation have a topic?'

Lily rolled her eyes 'Severus Snape I believe.'

'Who is this Lily?' Alex asked bemused

'Oh, sorry, this is Tom Derk he fancies my sister, and these are my friends Matt and Alex.' Lily explained smiling coyly up at Tom.

All slightly bemused at the situation the three boys greeted each other.

'So, what brings you hear Tom?' Lily asked as if she had no inkling of why he would be here.

'I'm collecting my sister from school.' He replied curtly, as if trying to terminate the conversation as quickly as possible.

'But you don't usually.' Lilly pointed out, 'She normally walks home on her own or with her friends.'

'Yes,' Tom agreed, 'But I'm not at school this week, because we get longer holidays at my school, so I can walk her home.'

'So on the way you could tell me about Severus Snape.' Said Lily

'Or not.'

'But you have to wait for your sister to come out of school and then walk home with her and it's almost the same way as to my house.' Lily rationalised.

'Why are you so obsessed by him anyway?' Tom threw at her suddenly. 'Are you in love with him?'

'No that's you and my sister, and I might tell you that if you tell me about Snape.' She cut in

'Fine, if you're not going to drop it.' Tom sneered, but he looked more exasperated with the subject and impatient to be free of Lily. 'He lives on Spinners End with his parents.'

'Where about?' Lily questioned,

'Err, half way down, I don't know the number, but it's the really shabby one. I think his father's a drunk or something.' Tom replied looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.

'And…'

'He's a weirdo.'

'And… come on I know you know loads about him, just spill.' It was Lily's turn to become annoyed.

'Fine. His parent argue all the time, I don't know what about, their just really noisy, and he spends ages on his own in his back garden talking to himself. He talks nonsense most of the time, like made up words, especially when his parents are rowing. I think his dad's an alcoholic or something.'

'The nonsense words bit, what else does he do when he's saying the words?' Lily questioned

'Emm, sometimes he holds a stick when he says them, and points it at stuff. And he always looks really grumpy when he does it.' Tom answered confused.

'And why's he not at this school?' Lily asked

'I think he's home schooled. But I've heard him talk about school with his mum I don't know.'

How do you know all this stuff?' Alex suddenly asked

Tom rolled his eyes, however it didn't quite come off as he blushed at the same time. 'One of my friends garden backs onto his, he knows loads of weird stuff about the Snape's.'

'Thanks,' Lily said grinning up at Tom Dirk, she turned on her heal and left him on his own again, Matt and Alex following after her.

When they had crossed the road and got out of earshot of Tom Derk the boys rounded on Lily.

'What and who was that?' Alex asked

'I said he fancies my sister, I met him before Christmas and he asked me about Tuney and said that in return he'd tell me about Severus Snape.'

'You can't just talk to random people Lily! Stranger danger and all that!' Alex nearly exploded. 'He could have been anyone!'

'I said I'd seen him before…'

'I mean before! Who were you with when you talked to him'

Lily blushed 'Well, he said he was waiting for his sister and- no wait, I saw him before, at the beginning of summer and I was with my sister and she was talking to him. There.'

'I sought of know him too,' Matt put in, 'his sister Jessica is in the same year as my sister.'

'I still don't like him though,' Alex mumbled

'I promise not to talk to him again then,' said Lily exasperated, 'I didn't really want to talk to him, it's just I needed that information on Severus Snape.'

'Why do you want to know about Snape?' Matt asked,

'I met him over the summer and he said some stuff about me and I want to ask him how much he knows and what he thinks about it' Lily shrugged vaguely.

'That's really helpful and clear Lily.' Said Alex, 'I'm so glad you explained.'

'No, Alex, I don't know what I'm talking about. I promise I'll tell you everything as soon as I know. Honest.' She pleaded.

'Why won't you take us with you?' Matt asked, trying to find some middle ground.

'I don't think that'd work.' Lily tried to explain, 'You heard from Tom Derk, he's a bit strange and I don't think he'd want to talk to you.'

'What? What's so bad about us!' Alex practically roared.

'Alex please…' said Lily, trying to keep the tears in her eyes, 'I don't want to lose another friend over this.'

'Another friend?' asked Alex suddenly quietened by Lily's response, 'this has nothing to do with Lucy and all that stuff.'

Lily bit the inside of her cheek, 'I don't know. It might be.'

 **This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:**

 **Harry Potter by J K Rowling**

 **The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling**

 **The Famous Five by Enid Blyton**


	5. Chapter 5 - Severus Snape

**Chapter 5**

 **Severus Snape**

Being bullied at school was changing Lily. Her friends and family could tell. She was becoming quieter, less confident and subdued. At home she no longer felt compelled to tell everyone about her day over dinner, and her friends noticed how she hardly talked with them anymore.

As the summer holidays approached Lily spent less and less time playing outside with her friends and more time reading in her room. Her mother began to worry about her, discussing with her father whether Lily should go to a different senior school to the majority of her class. Petunia was already set on going to the local senior school, but Mrs Evans thought that it would be best to send Lily to the grammar school in the middle of the city.

She hadn't mentioned it to her daughter as yet as she wanted to research the school a little more before she sent her daughter there.

The other thing that was getting to Lily was her sister. Petunia and Lily got on really well, and that was the problem. This next year was going to be the first year that they had ever gone to different schools. The girls didn't interact that often at school but Lily always felt more confident knowing that her big sister was there, able to come to the rescue if she was needed. Lily was going to lose that protection. Her sister was leaving her. And Petunia seemed excited about it.

Lily lay on her bed despondently. She didn't want to read; she'd just finished her book and didn't feel like starting a new one. She had just come upstairs from finishing lunch and had the whole day ahead of her. She didn't really want to do anything. She wished things could go back to how they had been before, before all of this had started. Before she had known she was a witch. Before she had known Severus Snape.

Ever since he had told her that she was a witch things had begun to go wrong. Tuney had argued with her the second time she had met Severus, and Matt and Alex had got annoyed when she had been talking about Severus to Tom Derk. All of Lily's problems came back to that boy. And she hardly knew him.

That was when Lily decided what she would do. She was going to go and find Severus Snape and he was going to tell her how to put it all right again. Then she would be able to make friends with Lucy again and everything would be back to how it all was before. Yes she was going to find Severus Snape and make him make it right.

Determinedly, Lily pushed herself off her bed and marched down the stairs. Finding her parents in the kitchen, she asked them if she could go for a bike ride. Her mother seemed so happy that Lily wasn't cooping herself up in her room that she said yes before Lily needed to explain where she was going. Her father however warned her that she had to be back before it started to get dark, the usual rule.

Lily wasn't exactly sure where Severus Snape lived. All she had were the vague instructions of Tom Derk from three months ago. She hadn't acted on them straight away for a few reasons; both Matt, Alex and her sister had warned her to stay away from him, as well as Tom Derk saying that he was strange and not wanting to talk much about him, and also that Lily herself, wasn't very sure that he seemed a very nice person. She was worried that he had been making up that she was a witch as a joke, yet Lily yearned for it to be true. She didn't want her dreams flattened in front of her by a boy she barely knew. So Lily had not acted on the information she had wheedled out of Tom Derk, but kept it in her head, where it could do no damage, where she could imagine the perfect outcome of the situation.

But now, it had been too long. She had to know the truth and she had to put everything back together. She needed to make it right again. And Severus Snape was going to help her to do it.

Lily free wheeled her bicycle down the slope towards the river, as it came into sight she started to worry that she wouldn't be able to find Severus's house. She ran over the instructions in her mind, as she had done countless times in the months since she had heard them 'They live down Spinner's End by the river', 'half way down, I don't know the number, but it's the really shabby one.'

She checked the road names as she rolled past them, but she was sure that it would be the last one. The one closest to the river. Where the poorest people in the neighbourhood lived. In the dank, dark brick houses constantly overlooked by the tumbling down mill which was no longer disguised amongst the cops of trees that surrounded it, as it was from further up the hill.

'Why do you build me up, build me up, Buttercup, baby,

'Just to let me down, let me down, and mess me around,' Lily hummed to herself as she searched for the street name. Finally, as she had expected, she got to the last turning of the road and there it was, Spinner's End. Leaning on her bike she turned down the road, slowing so that she could look at each house, comparing them. To her they all looked similar, shabby and tattered. About halfway along the street, as Tom Derk had said, there was a very dilapidated house. Lily stopped, suddenly unsure. Should she really be here? What was she supposed to say? What was she supposed to do? She hovered, undecided on the pavement, all at once hesitant to whether she should knock or just leave. If he wanted to talk to her then he would come and find her. Lily took a deep breath. But he had come and found her, twice. It was her turn to take the plunge. Leaving her bike propped against the crumbling brick wall she walked the three yards along the path to the front door. She had raised her hand to knock on the door when a voice stopped her.

'I wouldn't do that.'

Lily spun around on the spot.

Severus Snape was sat on the wall, his back to her, admiring her bicycle. He was dressed in the same cloths that he had been when she had first seen him in the park last year. He looked upset she thought, but he was trying not to show it.

'I … I …' Lily started; she had no idea how he had got there. She had heard nothing; he had had no time in which to move to there either. 'How did you get there?' she blurted out, then instantly realised how rude that sounded, it was his house after all. But Severus simply smirked in reply. 'I ... I mean … I … I believe you.' Lily told him, talking an unsure step towards him. Severus's eyebrows lowered, and Lily didn't know whether the look was that of confusion or that he didn't understand why she wouldn't believe him in the first place. Then he shrugged,

'So what do you want to do?' he asked brusquely

'What?' Lily asked confused

'Well what did you come over for?'

'I want you to tell me about being a witch, I suppose.' Lily answered still confused, sure that this conversation was not going the way that she wanted it to. Severus, however, seemed quite happy and stood up expecting her to follow him, but to Lily's confusion he didn't walk towards his house but in the opposite direction, down the street, in the direction that Lily had come from.

'Where are you going?' Lily asked,

'Well we're not going in there,' Severus gestured towards the house, 'My Dad would go ballistic.' As if that clarified everything he carried on walking down the road. Lily hurriedly grabbed her bike and followed after him.

He led her to the small thicket of trees where Lily had played Jungle Book themed games with Matt and Alex nearly a whole year ago. Severus stopped at a spot where Lily was just able to glimpse the sunlit river glittering through their trunks. The shadows cast by the trees made a basin of cool, green shade. The two children sat facing each other, cross legged on the ground. Snape had removed his large coat; his odd smock looked less peculiar in the half light.

'So what do you want to know?' Severus asked.

'Everything.' Lily answered, beginning to become exited, she really was a witch, he wasn't joking, she was sure. 'How did you know I was a witch, and what it means and everything!' she said

He smiled at her. It was a genuine smile and was so large that it made Lily giggle a little.

'The first one is easy,' he boasted, 'you were doing magic there in the park and I'd seen you do stuff before.'

'And only witches and wizards can do magic?' Lily questioned. He rolled his eyes,

'Of course. And what it means, well it means everything. You're part of our world now, well you always have been but now you know you are I s'pose.'

'Part of which world?' Lily asked

'Our world, the wizarding world.' He said as if it should have been obvious.

'Oh,' Lily said in wonder, 'Tell me everything.' She asked again.

'Well …' Severus started unsure of what to say for a while. Eventually he began to speek again, starting with the basics about magic and how it was different to magic that muggles (non-magical people) thought it was, about magic wands and how they would get them when they were eleven from Diagon Ally and then onto Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But he had not got far into explaining about Hogwarts when Lily noticed the time. After promising that she would meet him in this exact spot at two o'clock the next day Lily cycled back home up the hill.

As she left, Lily was sure that Severus looked a little happier than he had been when he had been sitting on the wall outside his house.

* * *

Lily spent as much time as she could with Severus. The stories that he told her kept her fascinated. What did it matter that she was bullied and called a freak at school if she could cycle down to the woods every day and meet Severus and he could tell her the tail of The Wizard and the Hopping Pot or explain why it was that she could make the branch above them suddenly cover itself in pure white blossom.

And Lily's parents were glad that now she was spending so much time out of the house coming back so full of life and rosy cheeked and they were so pleased in the change from the despondent self-confined child to the girl bouncing with energy and enthusiasm before them.

Before Lily knew it the summer holidays were upon them and she could spend much more time with Severus. She felt like she had a lot to learn, and Severus always had an answer for every question that she could think of. Lily wanted a way to repay him for everything that he was telling her, but when she offered to tell him a muggle fairy tale, or explain how muggles had come up with way to solve their problems instead of using magic, he would sneer at her.

'Why would I want to listen to one of their stories?' he had said 'Our world is so much better than anything muggles can think up.'

They began to vary where they met. Severus knew the area incredibly well from all the time he spent as far away from his arguing parents as he could. Lily, he claimed was the only person he had ever shown any of them to. Lily's favourite place was down by the river, but Severus often chose the rundown mill as were he wanted to spend the day. He enjoyed the lonely forgotten feel of the place.

Lily had never been to the mill before. Petunia said that it looked scary so both girls had kept their distance. But Severus admired the mill for reasons that Lily never could quite understand. It was after spending the day in the woods around the mill two weeks into the holidays that Lily discovered how her sister had been coping without her.

It was coming up to six o'clock and Lily knew that it would be coming up to dinner time at home and her parents would be annoyed if she was late home, so she was taking a short cut along an alleyway between the houses two streets away from her house. She had the song 'In the Summertime' by Mungo Jerry in her head and was humming along to it as she cycled.

'In the summer time when the weather is high  
You can stretch right up and touch the sky  
When the weather's fine' she mumbled to herself

She was peddling in time to the song, but began to speed up when she noticed a figure at the other end of the cut through. As she got closer she realised that it was in fact two people, kissing.

Tom Derk had her sister pinned up against the wall, his hands either side of her, and seemed to be trying to stick his tongue down Petunia's throat. It looked disgusting, really uncomfortable. Lily had no idea what she was meant to do. Should she just try and pretend that she couldn't see them, or hear the awful slurping noises, and cycle strait past. But that was her sister, and ignoring her felt wrong.

Luckily, Lily did not have to make that decision. As she drew close to them the couple jumped apart.

'Lily!' cried Petunia, 'What are you doing here?'

'Going home. What were you doing?' Lily countered. Petunia turned bright red,

'I … I was just … saying goodbye to Tom.'

'Just not using that many words.' Said Lily. 'Shall I tell mum you're coming?'

'If you dare-' Petunia began

'Whoa, don't worry.' Lily cut across her. 'I'm not going to say nothing.'

'You better.' Petunia threatened turning back to Tom Derk.

Lily pulled a face of disgust and peddled off. She knew that her sister was older than her, and that apparently kissing was a thing that people enjoyed when they got older. But she thought that her sister didn't look like she was enjoying it. Maybe it was just because Lily was too young to understand.

* * *

As the holidays were coming to a close Lily began to worry about school. She was going to be without Tuney. But whenever she mentioned it to Severus he'd remind her that all those people were muggles, he was sure about that, so she didn't have to worry about them. They didn't matter, they weren't part of their world, the magical world.

This did comfort Lily a little, knowing that next year she would not have to go to school with any of them. This time next year she would be at Hogwarts, in a place where she belonged, with the people she should be with, other magical people. It did worry her that maybe she wouldn't fit in with the magical people either. Maybe she was more muggle than magical.

She was sitting with Severus down by the river thinking about this a week before term started. Severus was explaining what happened if you did magic outside school or in front of muggles.

'But I have done magic outside school!' Lily suddenly realised, what if they wouldn't let her into Hogwarts and she would be banished to a life not belonging to either world.

'We're alright. We haven't got wands yet.' Severus reassured her. 'They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it. But once you're eleven,' he nodded importantly, 'and they start training you, then you've got to be careful.'

There was a little silence. Lily picked up a fallen twig and twirled it in the air, pretending that she could magic the trees around her into beautiful things in a beautiful palace. Then she dropped the twig, leaned in towards Severus, and said 'It is real, isn't it? It's not a joke? Petunia says you're lying to me. Petunia says there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?'

'It's real for us,' said Severus. 'Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me.'

'Really' whispered Lily, even now after more than six weeks of hearing all his stories about the magical world, sometimes she found it difficult to belie that it really all was going to happen.

'Defiantly,' said Severus, and even with his poorly cut hair and his odd cloths, he struck an oddly impressive figure sprawled in front of her, brimful of confidence in his destiny.

'And it will really come by owl?' Lily whispered, after a moment of silence.

'Normally,' said Severus. 'But you're Muggle-born, so someone from the school will have to come and explain to your parents.'

'Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?' Lily asked, voicing one of her biggest fears

Severus hesitated, and the fear built up inside Lily, but after less than a second's hesitation,

'No,' he said, 'it doesn't make any difference.' Relived Lily relaxed,

'Good,' she mumbled relived and elated that she was going to find a place where she really did fit in. it was going to be amazing. Just how she had imagined it all during that dark time in the summer term at school last year.

'You've got loads of magic,' said Severus, changing the subject. 'I saw that, all the time I was watching you …'

His voice trailed away into embarrassment, but Lily was not strictly listening. She stretched herself out, looking up at the canopy of leaves overhead, imagining life as a witch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

'How are things at your house?' Lily asked after some time.

A little crease appeared between his eyes.

'Fine,' he said.

'They're not arguing anymore?'

'Oh, yes, they're arguing,' said Severus. He picked up a fistful of leaves and begun tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. 'But it won't be that long and I'll be gone.'

'Doesn't your dad like magic?' Lily asked carefully, Severus rarely talked about his family life, and when he did it was always vague and made him angry or upset so Lily rarely pushed him.

'He doesn't like anything much,' Severus answered eventually.

'Severus?' Lily asked understanding and not wanting to push him too far,

'Yeah?'

'Tell me about the Dementors again.' She knew that he liked talking about them, he just liked the things that gave her shivers. His favourite Beadle story was the Warlocks Hairy Heart, and Lily was sure it was because of the gruesome ending.

'What do you want to know about them for?' He turned on her, she hated it when he became moody like this.

'If I use magic outside school –' she tried to cover and link it back to their conversation.

'They wouldn't give you to the Dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too –' he broke off, turning red, shredding more leaves. Then a small rustling noise behind them made both children turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree had lost her footing.

'Tuney!' cried Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Severus had jumped to his feet.

'Who's spying now?' he shouted. 'What do you want?'

Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. Lily could see her struggling for something hurtful to say to Severus, but Lily's mind was blank with shock and she could think of no way to stop her.

'What's that you're wearing' Tuney said pointing at Severus's chest. 'Your mum's blouse?'

There was a crack: a branch over Petunia's head had fallen. Lily screamed, sure that Petunia would be seriously hurt. The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder and she staggered backwards and burst into tears.

'Tuney!' Lily yelped, reaching out towards her sister.

But Petunia was running away. Lily rounded on Severus.

'Did you make that happen?'

'No.' he looked both defiant and scared. And Lily knew.

'You did!' she started to back away from him. 'You did! You hurt her!'

'No – no I didn't' he tried to convince her. But Lily, after one last burning look, ran from the thicket, off after her sister leaving Severus on his own confused at how he had done everything wrong.

Lily didn't see Severus for the rest of the week. She knew that he would be too proud to come round to her house; he would see that as admitting his mistake. But Lily didn't go around to his house strait away. Not because of her pride, but because she wanted Severus to realise that what he had done was wrong, and that she was upset and he should feel upset as well.

Lily also had to convince Petunia not to tell their parents who Lily had been with. Lily had never specifically lied to her parents, but she had let them assume that she was spending all this time out with Matt and Alex. Which she had been, some of the time, just mostly she hadn't. Lily didn't know how to explain to her parents about being a witch. Where would she start? So Lily hadn't told them about Severus or any of it. And now she had to make Petunia promise that she wouldn't give it all away.

Also, as if this wasn't enough for Lily to deal with all at once, Petunia was starting at her new school. Tuney was exited at this new prospect, seeing it as a marker, showing how old she was now, reminding Lily that she was the younger sister, the little one.

Aggravated Lily shut herself up in her room and turned on the radio, not wanting to read. She lay on her bed contemplating how difficult her life felt. She just couldn't wait until she could go to Hogwarts. Severus was right, family life was too complicated.

 **This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:**

 **Harry Potter by J K Rowling**

 **The Tails of Beadle the Bard by J K Rowling**

 **Build me up Buttercup by The Foundations**

 **The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling**

 **In the Summertime by Mungo Jerry**


	6. Chapter 6 - Pain of a Prince

**Chapter 6**

 **Pain of a Prince**

Lily was surprised at how little the difference of not having Petunia around all the time made. She had expected that she would miss seeing her sister at break times and walking home after school, but it wasn't like that at all. Lily felt much older now that it was just the three of them walking home as a group, rather than being overshadowed by all her sisters friends. And getting home from school half an hour before Petunia meant that Lily had all that time with just her and her mum in the house. Only weeks into the school term this all felt normal.

With all the new things going on Lily had thought that she would have less time to spend with Severus, but with Petunia older in her parents eyes, Lily found that she was given more responsibility and freedom. This she used to spend more time with her friends, including Severus.

Although she often invited her school friends to her house or vice versa, Sev had never invited her into _his_. She had often met him outside it or at the top of his road, and so she had never felt inclined to invite him to her house. At first this had been because she wondered if he had some kind of aversion to inviting or being invited to people's houses. Perhaps he had never really had any friends to invite in. It eventually became so normal to spend time with Sev outdoors that she never thought to invite him over anyway. Lily discovered the reason for his quirk in early November…

The Friday after bonfire night, Lily cycled down to Sev's house as she had not seen him for the past two weeks. She had expected him to come up to her and then walk down the other side of the hill to explore the adjacent valley, as they had discussed. Lily's schedule was generally more fixed than his and so it was normally Sev who decided when they could next meet up. But this had been a longer gap than usual.

It was particularly windy, Lily had to peddle though it was downhill most of the way because the air was almost pushing her back up the hill. Finally, when she got to his house Lily could see no sign of Sev and so chose to knock at the door, something that she had done only twice before. It was not Severus who answered the door, as it had been previously, but a thin, hollow looking woman. She stood there looking both confused and cross at Lily. The woman had long, dark unkempt hair which was mostly kept away by the plait that ran down her back. She tilted her head forwards making her face appear longer than it was and it appeared as though the world weighed heavily on her shoulders as she was inclined to slouch. Her eyes were dark with deep circles around them making them appear to be sunken into her skull. She wore a long dress that looked like it had once been deep green but had been over worn several years ago and in coming down to her ankles looked like it had been first made in a previous century.

'Hi,' Lily mumbled in the woman's general direction, 'I was just wondering if Severus was in. I'm Lily. We sometimes meet up and …' her voice trailed off.

'Oh,' said the woman, whom Lily guessed to be Sev's mother, 'I'll get him for you.'

She turned, letting the door close in Lily's face, leaving the suddenly nervous girl standing on the door step unsure of what she was supposed to do.

Lily stayed there, slightly swaying on the doorstep for only a moment, before Sev appeared. He looked positively sallow, a sickly tinge that contrasted his usual pale complexion. His hair was clumped together in thick clogs and there were two long purple bruises across his face along his cheekbones. Severus' eyes revealed the wounded, vulnerable boy he tried to hide from her for those past two weeks. Realizing his mistake he straightened himself up, he didn't want her pity. That was the last thing he needed: Lily pretending to be his friend because she felt sorry for him.

'What do you want Lily?' he asked curling his lip a frustrated sneer.

'Well, I was coming down to see if you wanted to come out today… I-I haven't seen you in weeks.' Lily's bright green eyes held a wounded expression before they squinted in anger. 'But clearly, you don't want to!' Her temper jumped up at his unexpected reply and she turned as an angry flush rushed to her cheeks. Lily stomped down his garden path to where she'd left her bike.

Watching her leave, Severus panicked. **  
**'Lily, stop!' Sev called out, Lily turned, an auburn eyebrow raised.

'I … I'm … I didn't mean to say it like that.' He said

Lily sighed. ' I know,' she comforted him, 'I guess I just wasn't expecting to see your mum!' she giggled.

'Why? What's wrong with my mum?!' Sev accused jumping round at Lily.

'Sev! What is the matter with you? I was only laughing because I don't know why I wouldn't have expected your mum to answer her own door.' Lily said while looking at him her eyebrows knitted together with her confusion at his reaction. 'Come on,' she carried on after a pause, 'aren't we going to explore my valley?'

Severus turned up the corner of his mouth, yet the confusion and aggression remained in his eyes as he went to grab his bike from the back garden. Lily didn't mind the wait for him this time. She pondered being abruptly left on the doorstep by his mother. Why she didn't invite Lily in seemed a bit strange. Wasn't that what most people did? Lily shrugged to herself and climbed onto her bike, which filled the time for Sev to come back with his.

Together they spent most of the day running down the paths through the wooded valley. They had left their bikes at the top of woods, where the road ended. The valley was too steep to cycle up and most of the paths too narrow, bumpy and overgrown. Brambles appeared to be the main plant in the undergrowth leaving both children with plenty of scratches on their hands, arms and legs.

Eventually they sat down at the edge of the river in the middle of the valley to skim stones ineffectively into the water. Sitting on the pebbly beach Severus began to compare their injuries, declaring that he had the largest scratch, it ran from his outer elbow to midway down his forearm and Lily knew she didn't have one to compare in length though did point out that it was only a red line and barely a scratch at all.

'But what happened to your face?' she asked, only really comprehending now that the bruises on his cheeks must have been from some fall or another kind of hard knock.

'What's happened to my face?' he replied confused.

'I mean the bruises,' Lily corrected herself drawing a line on her own face, indicating where she meant.

'I just fell over.' He said bluntly, his cheeks turning red under the purple.

Suddenly he stood up, looking down at Lily he almost shouted at her, 'You know it's rude to just ask people what's wrong with their face!'

'I … I'm sorry,' Lily replied, but too late as Severus had already run off into the woods, up the steep slope towards where they had left the bikes.

'Sev! Severus!' Lily jumped up and tried to run after him but yelling at the top of her voice and running simultaneously was difficult and she had no idea where he could have gone. 'Sev I said I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!' but it was no use, he could have been hiding somewhere close by or have already reached the top of the hill. She had no idea.

With hot tears boiling down her cheeks, she sat down when she finally reached the bikes to discover his gone. Why had she said that? They had been having such a nice day before then.

Wiping the tears away she scrambled back onto her bike and peddled home by herself hoping that her parents would mistake the red cheeks and bloodshot eyes for effects of the cold rather than crying.

* * *

Over the next few days Lily couldn't get out of her head the main theme of their conversation while they had been in the woods together. Sev had brought it up. She hadn't yet told her parents that she was a witch. It seemed like a strange thing to do, telling you parents something about you that they didn't already know. But Lily knew that it was something that she needed to do.

'Mum, can I talk to you about something?'

'What's the matter, Sweat pea?' Mrs. Evans replied, her younger daughter's large green eyes gazing up intently at her.

'I… well… em…' Lily stuttered, she had no idea how to break this to her parents.

What were you supposed to say? Severus had been no help. He didn't seem to mind much about people who weren't magical, 'muggles' as he called them. He thought of them as second class citizens, unimportant humans.

'Is everything alright at school?' Mrs. Evans asked.

'Yes, that's not what this is about' Lily tried to explain. 'Actually, Mum, I think it's fine; don't worry, it'll sought itself out,' she coped out.

This conversation had taken place several times over the past few weeks. It was now December and Lily was worried. Her parents were in the process of enrolling her into Cokeworth Grammar School for Girls, but Lily knew that she was going to go to Hogwarts. Severus was sure that she was a witch, but he didn't know when a teacher would come to her house and explain it all to her parents; and Lily didn't want her parents working hard to enroll her when she wasn't going to go there.

It was to her father that Lily finally managed to break the news to. He reacted just how she expected. It was after dinner while her mother was watching the television when Mr. Evans came upstairs to talk to Lily.

'Lily, what is the matter?' He asked, quietly sitting down on the bed next to his daughter. Lily looked up at him confused. 'Lily, we know when something isn't right. Is school troubling you—your friends perhaps? I want to help you and your mother is getting concerned.'

'I know you do, Dad,' mumbled Lily, leaning her head against his shoulder, 'It's just… really difficult to explain.' They sat in silence, her father waiting patiently for Lily to go on. She bit her lip, trying to work out what to say, where to start, her fingers twisting and squirming around in her lap.

'You know that sometimes strange things happen around me.' She started 'Remember the water that didn't get me wet last year?' Lily added and her father nodded. 'Well things like that happen around me a lot when I get worried. Recently I've been able to control them—but they happen because, well… It's because I'm…' her fingers were starting to grow red from the incessant pulling and twisting of the skin of her hands as they writhed together. '…because I'm a witch.'

Lily looked up at her father to gage his reaction. He seemed surprised at first, this was obviously not the explanation he had expected. His eyebrows knitted together and his forehead crumpled down, concern written in his features.

'Who told you that you were a witch, Lily?' He asked carefully.

Lily hesitated; it was all going to have to come out now.

'Severus Snape, he's a Wizard to.' She added hopefully

'And how do you know Severus Snape?' Lily's father asked.

'I … I see him sometimes in the park, when I'm out.'

'So Matt and Alex know him too?'

'They know of him…?' Lily said wincing as she looked up at her father. She was about to mention that Petunia had met him, but then Lily remembered how her sister had reacted to Severus. Maybe it would be better if her father wasn't told all of Tuney's prejudices against Sev before her father met him.

'Hmm' her father said after a pause, 'I think I would like to meet this Severus Snape.'

' _Why_?' asked Lily then realizing her rudeness added, 'Why would you want to meet him? He's just someone I sometimes see and talk to; you haven't met everyone I know at school.'

'I know Lily, but I think your mum would like to meet him to, and it would be nice for you to ask him around for tea sometime. Meeting your children's friends is just something that grownups think they have to do.' He told her.

Lily rolled her eyes in response, 'Fine, I'll ask Severus if he wants to come to dinner.'

'Thank you Lily,' her father said smiling at her. 'Have you finished all your homework and done all your jobs?'

'Yes Dad,' Lily smiled back

'Right then, goodnight Lily-Pad,' he said kissing her as he stood up

'Night-night.' Lily replied as he left the room.

* * *

That Saturday, Lily met Severus down by the river and she explained what her father had said.

'But what if I don't want to come to your house?' Severus responded vehemently. His change in demeanor was so sudden, it caught Lily of guard.

'Why? Why wouldn't you?' asked Lily as her forehead creased. Suddenly worried that he wouldn't want to come because he didn't think of them as friends. Lily was muggle born after all and although Severus persisted that it made no difference, she was sure that it would.

'You can't just invite people around to your house without asking them!'

'But that's what I'm doing now. I'm asking you.' Lily paused, composing herself, 'Severus, would you like to come around to my house for tea?'

'But why would I want to come to your house for tea?' he asked, this time much calmer.

'Because we're friends, aren't we, or is it cause my parents are muggles…?' Lily pondered sadly.

'No! no that doesn't matter!' Sev jumped up his eyes wild at the thought. 'Its just that, _**why**_ would I come and have dinner at your house? I-I don't understand.'

Lily giggled, she couldn't help herself, 'You've never been to someone else's house for dinner, have you?'

But Severus's mood had returned, and he could not and **would** not listen to Lily's laughter any more. He grabbed his long coat from where he had left it and shrugged it on. His dark eyes grew stormy. Lily sat up, perplexed by her friends actions. Her mouth was closed and no longer smiling, but the laughter remained in her eyes. Severus turned abruptly and left her, his baggy clothes billowing out behind him.

'Sev? Severus? Come back!' Lily called jumping to her feet and rushing after him, but Severus merely broke into a run, desperate to leave her behind.

'Severus please ask… Please ask if you can come to my house… Severus please what's wrong?' Lily called anxiously trying to catch up with him, but Severus was quick and left her wounded and confused.

The two had arranged to meet on Wednesday afternoon, either in the trees or at the mill. But though Lily went to all of their usual hideouts in attempts to find Severus.

He was nowhere to be found.

Sighing, Lily realized he was probably still angry about being invited to her house, the reason still eluded her. She didn't understand why he wouldn't want to come

. Frustrated she furrowed her brows, if he didn't want to be found then that was his problem, she thought as she peddled back up the hill.

The next Saturday Severus was still nowhere to be found, but Lily had a plan. After checking everywhere she thought that he could be hiding, the little witch went to his house with a folded piece of paper in her hand. Leaving her bike propped up on the garden wall; she half-ran up the pathway and slipped the paper through the letterbox. Heart racing, Lily grabbed her bike and cycled home.

'That wasn't very long.' Her mother called as Lily stepped inside the house.

'I couldn't find Sev.' Lily answered disappointedly.

'I thought you knew where he lived? Didn't you say he lived on Spinner's End, Lily?' her mother asked confused.

'But he doesn't like being at home,' Lily countered, 'I think that's why he was so angry when I asked him if he wanted to come here.' Lily pouted and plopped down on kitchen chair.

'Don't worry Lils,' said her father coming in from the garden, 'I'm sure he'll come round', you just said something he wasn't expecting. Don't worry.'

'But _why_ wasn't he expecting me to ask him round for tea?' Lily moaned.

'Because, the way people live down on the Oak Apple estate is different to the way we live.' Lily's mother explained. 'They have different expectations on how to talk to people and how to treat they're friends. Maybe being asked to tea isn't something he's used to, or it means something different to him. Maybe you'll need to go a bit differently with Sev to your other friends.'

 **This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:**

 **Harry Potter by J K Rowling**


	7. Chapter 7 - Stories and Letters

**Chapter 7**

 **Stories and letters**

The next day Lily went back to the park; she sat down on the swing, slowly pushing herself back and forth as she waited. It was a bright sunny day, but the air was still holding on to its wintery chill and Lily was glad that she had her hat, coat and gloves on.

'Fine, you win.' Said a sudden voice from beside her. Turning Lily smiled in surprise; Severus Snape appeared sitting on the swing beside her, his usual baggy old coat buttoned up against the cold. He looked as if he was trying very hard to be annoyed, but Lily could see that he was quite glad to see her again.

'You said in your note that you had another story to tell me.' Severus continued.

'Yeah,' replied Lily slowly, 'Only…this story isn't about our friendship…and this isn't about a lesson like the stories grownups tell us. I'm telling you a story because two Saturdays ago you told me a wizard story and I didn't get to tell you a muggle one back.'

'Ok,' Severus said grinning at her, 'I promise.'

'Good. Righty then.

'Once upon a time there was a merchant who had three daughters. He was very rich and his daughters were very beautiful, but only the youngest daughter, Belle, was pure of heart. Her sisters were wicked and selfish. The two elder sisters were always wanting things and buying expensive dresses and jewelry. Eventually, their father's money ran out. They had to sell their rich clothes and the beautiful big house in the city and bought a small farm house in the middle of the countryside where they had to work for their living. After seven years, they had made enough money that when their father travelled to the market in the city, he asked his daughters what presents they would like him to bring back for them. The eldest daughter asked for the most beautiful dress that he could find. The second daughter asked for the most beautiful necklace that he saw. But Belle simply asked for a red rose, because no roses grew in that part of the country. But as the merchant came close to the city he was robbed by some thieves and he could not buy any of the gifts for his daughters.

'Very upset the merchant turned for home, but because he was so miserable he lost his way in the forest-'

'He should have taken a compass.'

'Sev! I'm not done yet—erhmm… where was I…Oh yes! Suddenly, he found himself standing in front of tables filled with food and drink. Being very hungry and tired the merchant ate the food and spent the night there. The next morning, as he was about to leave, he saw a rose garden and remembered that Belle had asked for a rose. The merchant picked the most beautiful rose he could find and suddenly a great beast appeared! It was very angry and told the merchant that for taking his most precious possession, after the beast had been so hospitable, the merchant must die. The merchant begged to be set free saying that he had picked the rose as a gift for his youngest daughter. The beast agreed to let the merchant go and give his gift, but only if the merchant would return.

'What!? It was only a flower!'

' **SEVERUS!** Do you want to hear the story or not?!'

'Yes but-'

'NO BUTS!….Very upset, but accepting this condition the merchant went on his way with many jewels and fine cloths for his daughters and asking the beast to keep this a secret from Belle. When the merchant got home he tried to keep the secret but Belle managed to persuade her father. As she was so compassionate Belle took her father's place and went to the beasts castle herself. The beast received her graciously telling her that she was mistress of the castle and he was her servant. Belle was given beautiful cloths and lavish food. Every night the beast asked Belle to marry him but each time she refused saying that she loved him as a friend. Every night Belle dreamed of a handsome prince who pleaded with her to marry the beast. Belle became convinced that the beast was holding the prince of her dreams somewhere in the castle, she searched through many rooms but never found the prince.

'For many months, Belle lived in the beast's palace, having every whim catered to by the servants. Eventually she became homesick and begged the beast to allow her to go and see her family. The beast allowed her to as long as she promised to return in exactly one week. Belle agreed and set off for home with an enchanted mirror and ring. The mirror showed her what was happening at the beast's castle, and the ring, after three turns around her finger, would return her to the castle. Belle's sisters were surprised to find her so well and beautifully dressed an soon became envious of her life in the castle. They begged her to stay an extra day as soon as they heard that Belle had to return to the castle, even using onions to make themselves cry and Belle agreed to stay. The sisters hoped that the beast would be so angry with Belle for breaking her promise he would eat her alive.'

'A bit drastic don't you think Lily?' Sev interrupted, an unbelieving smile on his face.

'SEV!'

'Come on Lily, can't you see it's hilarious?' He continued to talk. Lily swiveled round, turning her back to him. 'Ok, ok, I'll stop talking now!' he sighed exasperated

'Fine.

'Soon Belle, feeling guilty about breaking her promise to the beast, used the mirror to see him back at the castle. She was horrified to see that the beast was lying, half dead, near the rose bushes and she immediately used the ring to return to the beast.

'Belle hurried to the beast's side and wept over him saying that she loved him. When her tears touched him the beast was transformed into the handsome prince from Belle's dreams. The beast told her that a fairy had turned him into a horrible beast because of his wicked behavior and only true love would break the spell. Belle and the handsome prince were married and they lived together happily ever after.'

Finishing her story Lily looked at Sev who rolled his eyes.

'That was such a muggle story.' He groaned, 'of course everyone 'lived happily ever after'! Like you said it's just a story and no one real lives like that. Muggle stories are never real like wizarding ones are.'

'Some people might…' Lily replied, biting her lip and trying not to feel hurt, ' And I don't like it when you say that a muggle are a bad thing to be.'

'But they're not wizards.' Severus replied confused. This time Lily rolled her eyes and groaned.

'You just don't get it do you?'

'I've got a story for you as well.' He replied suddenly changing the subject. Severus was clearly feeling blamed in some way and was wanting to move on.

'But Sev, I haven't learnt another one for you so you'll be one story up again.' Lily complained.

'Please Lily, I think you'll like this one, it's a bit like your muggle ones with three girls and a handsome knight and everything.' Severus persuaded.

'Oh, alright then,' Lily said pushing herself higher into the air on her swing.

Severus grinned at her and started his story,

'Once there was an enchanted fountain enclosed in a garden full of strong magic. Every year a poor unfortunate witch or wizard was chosen to climb up the hill and bath in the water to gain fair fortune forevermore. On that day, every year, lots of witches and wizards gathered around the gates to the enchanted fountain. In the huge crowd there were three witches, Asha, Altheda and Amata. Asha was so sick that no healer could heal her, Altheda had been robbed by an evil sorcerer who had also broken her wand so she would ever do magic again, and Amata had been deserted by her lover.

'Can you really?'

'Lily!'

'You interrupted me! Can you really not do magic if you're wand is broken?' She persisted grounding her swing, dragging her legs on the tarmac beneath her.

Sev thought for a moment and then replied 'Well, you would have to buy a new wand and maybe she couldn't afford one as she couldn't do any magic to get any money. Anyway,' He said looking at Lily pointedly. 'The three witches decided that if any of them was to be chosen to reach the fountain, then the other two would help. As the first light touched the gate the next sunrise, there it opened just a crack, and long winding creepers from the magical garden reached through and wrapped themselves around the first witch, Asha. Asha grabbed hold of Altheda's wrist tightly and Altheda grabbed hold of the corner of Amata's robes. And Amata became caught up in the armour of a handsome knight who had also been waiting in the crowd. The creepers pulled all four of them into the garden and the gates slammed closed behind them.

'Asha and Altheda became angry with Amata as she had brought the knight and it would have been difficult enough for the witches to decide amongst themselves who would be the one to bathe in the fountains waters and Amata had brought in another contender. The knight however, told them his story that he was a squib and hoped that the fountain's waters would be able to give him magical powers, however, he was so noble he promised he would help the witches to reach the fountain and so the witches allowed him to join them in their quest, so together the four of them travelled up the steep hill towards the fountain all now set on their task ahead.

'Soon they reached a monstrous, heaving, cold, white worm that was blind and terrible to look at. The worm cried out 'Pay me the proof of your pain' as they approach it.' As he spoke Severus gave the worm a high pitched drawn out voice which sent shivers down Lily's spine.

'Uhrg Sev!' she complained but he carried on regardless.

'The knight drew his sword but he could not come to within three footfalls of the beast and the three witches could not destroy the worm or attack it by any other magical means. Eventually Asha began to cry great tears, afraid that they would never pass the worm and reach the fountain. The worm bent its blind, disfigured head towards her and drank her tears. Then it moved off to a different part of the enchanted garden.

'At noon as the sun reached its peak in the sky the three witches and the knight reached a steep slope with the words 'Pay me the fruit of your labour' engraved in the earth. The knight took out a coin and placed it on the ground but the words remained sketched in the soil and the coin rolled away down the slope and could not be found again. Again the witches could find no spell to remove the words and however fast they walked up the slope they did not move as much as a whole inch forwards. Altheda was the most determined and she worked the hardest to pass the words, as the sun moved lower in the sky sweat from her forehead fell on the ground and the words disappeared and they could move forwards up the hill once more.'

'Her sweat! Of course!' cried Lily, but again Sev ploughed on with the story ignoring her.

'As the clouds grew pink in the sky the four of them reached the top of the hill. However, they could not reach the fountain as a stream circled the summit. Stones along the bottom of the stream formed the words 'Pay me the treasure of your past' none of the travellers could jump across the stream and the knight tried to float across on his shield but he could not cross either. Amata sat down on the grass and tried to work out the meaning of the words. As the sun began to set Amata drew all the memories of her lover from her mind and they were washed away in the water. Immediately the stones formed stepping stones and they were able to pass across to the fountain.'

'Can you do that?' Lily jumped in again.

'Lily!' Sev complained, but this time he answered her question. 'Yeah, there's a spell you can do that takes memories out of your head so you can keep them somewhere different. So you can look at them later.'

'So you can take out your own memories? But you wouldn't be able to remember them!'

'Come on Lily, I already told you about the ministry wiping people's memories. Can I _please_ finish the story?'

'I suppose.' Lily answered sticking out her tongue at him and beginning to lightly swing again.

'Suddenly Asha collapsed on the ground, close to death as she was so ill. The others tried to lift her to carry her to the fountain, but she cried that she was not to be moved. Altheda hurried to collect some of the herbs and magical plants that grew around the fountain and created a potion. Because of this amazing work Asha was cured of her illness and no longer needed to bathe in the fountain. Altheda busily collecting more of the plants called that 'if I can cure Asha then I could become a healer and won't need to bathe in the fountain.' The knight turned to Amata but she didn't want to bathe as the stream had washed away all of the memories of her lover and she now saw how cruel and faithless he had been to her. But the knight on his journey had realized how magic had not helped the witches solve the problems during their quest and he no longer wanted to bathe. He knelt down in front of Amata and asked for her hand and her heart, and Amata realizing that here was a man who was worthy of her, agreed. The four of them set off arm in arm and lived long happy lives, and none of them ever realized that the fountains waters carried no enchantment at all.'

Lily laughed at the ending.

'You were right, Sev, I really did like that one.' She told him. 'But it did have a bit of a 'happily ever after' ending didn't it.' she said grinning cheekily at him.  
'That's why I chose that one for you!' He replied annoyed. 'You like all the boring girly muggle stories!'

'I was joking!' she bounced back, grinning from ear to ear.

They swung together in silence for a while, both enjoying the silent company of the other, until Lily pointed out the time and that she was nearly frozen to her swing and they both left, having agreed to meet again in two days' time.

It wasn't until she had nearly reached the road and Severus was nearly out of sight before Lily suddenly remembered what her mother had asked.

'Sev, did you ask your mum?' she called back to him. Having not heard her properly Severus ran back towards her and had her repeat the question. Sev's cheeks turned a little red as he nodded in answer

'Yeah, she said I could … if …' his voice trailed off but Lily's enthusiasm erupted

'Excellent! Would you be able to make this Saturday?' her eyes brightening at the thought. Severus blushed deeper but nodded in response. Then they both said goodbye again and set off for their separate homes.

* * *

Saturday came quickly to Lily, and by six o'clock she was bouncing around the kitchen in anticipation.

'Sev's really shy and he doesn't like talking about his home that much, but he really loves talking about Hogwarts and magic.' She was rapidly explaining to her bemused looking father. 'And he says that I have lots of magic because I can do lots of things with it, and control my magic really well for not being trained yet, and Sev says that not having magical parents doesn't matter and that…'

'Calm down Lily,' her father said chuckling at her, but just then the doorbell rang and Lily ran off to open the door.

Severus stood there wearing his usual overlarge cloths and looking decidedly pale. He smiled nervously at Lily, she grinned back and ushered him into the house.

'Mum! Dad! Sev's here!' she called, but it was not her parents who came down the stairs.

'What are you doing here?' Petunia asked venomously standing on the bottom step.

'Petunia, this is Lily's friend, he's come for tea.' Their father warned from behind Petunia. Petunia slipped of the step and turned her back on Lily and Severus, her chin in the air and eyes raised she half marched into the dining room to set the table. Lily rolled her eyes and giggled quietly at her sister's behaviour, but Severus simply looked more scared and nervous than he had before.

'Don't worry Sev, she's always like that now.' Lily said and Severus could detect the sadness in her voice, but as he was so nervous he didn't comment on it, expecting Lily to be almost as nervous as he was about him coming to her house.

The dinner went really well for Lily. Although Petunia tried her hardest to embarrass Severus, bringing up things such as where he lived and making his parents seem unkind, their parents seemed to take it all in their stride and not make a fuss about anything at all. This helped to relax Severus and soon he seemed comfortable enough in his surroundings for Lily to bring up the subject of magic. Her parents seemed to take the situation alright although Lily was certain that they were almost as ill at ease as Petunia. They seemed to hold their confusion in and were very polite towards Severus, regardless of his incessant talk of magic. And the way that he seemed to look down on them more and more as the evening stretched on. Every time they mentioned that they didn't understand a concept, such as apparating or the Ministry of Magic, Severus looked at them appalled before bursting into a new train of thought to explain this new view of the world.

At the end of the evening, Sev had gone home and Lily was currently tucked up in bed as her father came in to say goodnight.

'Lily, do you really believe Severus, when he talks about magic and this ' _Hogwarts?_ ' he asked cautiously. Lily looked back at him, her head on one side.

'I know what you think.' She said 'But it's the only thing that makes sense. Look, watch' as she got out of bed and picked up her pencil case. Placing it carefully in the palm of her hand and concentrated hard on it. Slowly the pencil case began to rise, slowly and jaggedly at first but then much more smoothly. Lily held it there at about four feet above her hand and then carefully lowered it back onto her desk. 'What else could explain that?'

His face paled in response to his daughters sudden burst of magic. Staring at the pencil case and back to his daughter, he was rendered speechless.

'I can do things like that all the time … it's not a trick' she said, looking up at her stricken father's forehead crumpled. Her father's worry making her feel sick inside.

'Don't worry Lily-Pad' he mumbled rubbing her head, as he slowly turned and walked, zombie-like to the door, his eyes still fixed on the pencil case.

* * *

The next morning, as Lily shuffled down the stairs, she heard her parents talking in the kitchen.

'… up above her head and then it went down onto the desk again. She said that it was real and not a trick. But, well …' her father's voice trailed off.

'You think it's real? I thought that Hogwarts was just a story, Lily has always played imaginatively with her friends. Remember when they nearly had us all convinced they had actually found a dinosaur skeleton down by the river? Or all those stories about playing in the caves, when there are no caves near here? Maybe it was just a dream after listening to Severus for all that time.' Lily's mother replied.

Freezing on the spot, Lily realized that they were talking about her. Crouching low on the stairs she listened harder.

'A very vivid dream.' Her father countered, 'But you're right Hogwarts just sounds like a story. It isn't real.'

Lily screwed up her eyes in frustration. How could they not believe her! She had shown her father magic and he was just passing it off! How could she make them believe her?

The answer came, as it usually does, in a way that Lily was least expecting it. Two weeks later, curled up on the sofa in the front room, her knees were tucked up, almost under her chin, reading _Third Year at Malory Towers_ by Enid Blyton. Lily heard a sudden, yet polite, knock at the door. Keeping the book in place, but no longer reading the words, Lily listened as her mother came down the stairs and opened the door.

'Good day,' came the cheery male voice that Lily did not recognize.

'I believe you are Calla Evans. I am here to talk about your daughter Lilian' Lily froze stiff, eyes wide, listening hard. She could hear her mother's confusion.

'I am Horace Slughorn,' the man went on as if this explained everything,

'Of course come in,' Lily's mother said, Lily heard the door close and then her mother entered into the sitting room.

'Oh, Lily, would you go and fetch your father,' her mother said and as Lily stood up a rather short fat man entered into the room. Lily thought he was wearing a rather strange mustard yellow suite, the waist coat of which was struggling to stay buttoned up. He smiled widely at Lily in a way she found almost too friendly, but she returned the jester as she left the room to go and find her father.

When Lily re-entered the sitting room behind her father, Horace Slughorn and her mother were talking. Horace Slughorn was chatting away amicably, as if he had been invited to tea all the time, but her mother seemed less sure of the whole situation.

'This is Horace Slughorn,' Lily's mother told her father, 'He's come to talk about Lily's schooling. He says that she has been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.' She said with a knowing look on her face that she often gave her father when she knew something was off.

Lily's eyes lit up. 'Really?' she whispered, 'I'm really going to go?' a huge grin began creeping onto her face.

'Of course you are,' replied Horace Slughorn, smiling warmly at her as her parents continued their silent conversation. 'I assume you are Lilian, then,'

'Yes, Lily ' she replied

'I'm Professor Slughorn,' he said, 'I teach potions at Hogwarts and am head of Slytherin house.'

'Sev wants to be in Slytherin too and potions is the one with the caldrons, isn't it?' Lily said excitedly, moving to sit down next to Professor Slughorn.

'Yes it is. Who's _Sev_?' Professor Slughorn asked politely,

'Severus Snape, he lives down by the river, near the old mill.'

'Snape… Snape… hmmm I don't recognize the name, what year is he in?' Professor Slughorn pondered.

'Oh, he's not at Hogwarts yet, he's my age.'

'I see,' said Professor Slughorn smiling, 'that is quite unusual, I am assuming his parents are wizards then.'

'I think his mum is, his dad is a muggle I think,' Lily answered,

'Of course, that would explain it…' Slughorn mused, almost to himself, as if he knew all the names of the students who had ever been to Hogwarts. Lily thought this to be improbable, however she didn't want to contradict someone that she had only just met, so she smiled and nodded.

'The thing is,' Lily's father said out loud turning to Professor Slughorn, 'that we have never heard of this school apart through Lily and her friend. And you can imagine that we don't really want to send our daughter to this unknown place for her education. It's not that we don't trust you, however our daughter's future is important and we have no idea what this school stands for or where it even is!'

'You are completely correct.' Professor Slughorn answered, smiling up at her father, 'This is the problem that our muggle parents have to face. There is no way of me being able to prove to you that Hogwarts actually exists by taking you there, as the castle is guarded against muggles for safety of the students. But I can demonstrate to you as much of the curriculum as I can in this room for you.

'Lily will have several different subjects to learn, as she would in any school, at Hogwarts the compulsory classes are Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Astronomy, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and Flying class which is also available for first years.

'Potions is a very practical subject and I would find it difficult to brew something here, I doubt you have a cupboard full of boomslang skin.' Professor Slughorn chuckled to himself, as if boomslang skin was something you would have a cupboard full of.

'I'm sorry,' Lily's mother said 'what is boomslang skin?'

'Oh, don't be sorry, a boomslang is a snake that is generally found in sub-Saharan Africa. The skin is used in several magical potions.' He smiled, as if this was a normal kind of explanation.

'I digress,' he continued, 'In Transfiguration class students learn how to transfigure objects into different things. For example, with transfiguration, I could turn that teacup into a mouse.'

'Really?' Lily breathed.

'Of course,' Professor Slughorn answered taking out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at a cup and saucer that had been left on the coffee table. With a wave of his wand, the cup suddenly became a bemused looking mouse sitting on the saucer. A sudden scream came from the doorway, and as Lily turned she saw her sister run from the room, her hands clamped over her mouth.

'Petunia!' her mother called and left the room after her. Professor Slughorn proceeded to turn the mouse back into a teacup; he then looked at her father who gave a small nod for Professor Slughorn to continue, though the colour of his face reminded Lily of when she had made her pencil case hover for him.

'In Herbology students learn about the care of and magical properties of several magical and mundane plants and fungi, such as devil's snare, mandrakes and leaping toadstools.

'Astronomy is the study of the night sky, I believe muggles know some astrology.'

'Well, I am a Physicist so some of my colleagues are astronomers.' Lily's father said, Professor Slughorn smiled and nodded, Lily wasn't convinced that he knew what a physicist was. This it seemed was something her father could understand and he latched onto it as a base point.

'So is it astronomy or astrology that she would be studying?' he asked in a controlled, measured voice.

'I believe astrology, as it focuses on the meaning of the position of the planets and stars. Yet there is plenty of astronomy in there. How can you know the meaning of a planet if you don't know which one it is?' the professor chortled to himself, appearing confident that he had answered the question correctly. But Lily's father did not look satisfied.

'So my daughter would be being taught a subject which has proved to be wrong and is inaccurate, but with a little science thrown in there so that it is almost impossible to decipher the fact from the fiction? And called the name of the science?' He asked in the same voice.

'Ah, right, you see,' said Professor Slughorn, 'For witches and wizards the two are almost indistinguishable. The magic inside them allows them to predict the future much more accurately and to understand the meaning of the planets in a much more profound way than a muggle would be able to do. That is where the confusion comes in. And the subject does come with a warning that predicting the future is a tricky and delicate subject, reporting anything more than the facts seen in the skies will almost certainly lead to an incorrect prediction which many a time has caused havoc on the world below.

Also, though these may be the subjects covered in first year as a basic introduction to magic, your daughter will be able to choose her subjects as she moves up in the school, and this may be one that she may discontinue late down the line.'

This seemed to placate Lily's father for the moment and after a brief pause Professor Slughorn resumed his speech.

'Defence Against the Dark Arts, 'he continued, 'is pretty self-explanatory, students learn how to defend themselves against other magical entities, whether they are human or some kind of magical creature. Students learn to tackle creatures from gnomes to boggarts.

'History of Magic is a very theoretical class where students learn about the goblin wars and the Tudor witch burnings, that sought of thing.

'In Charms students learn how to concentrate their magical power and perform the branch of magic we call charms. Often these consist of taking an inanimate object and causing it to move without touching it. For example I can make this teacup fly around the room.' Professor Slughorn then lifted up his wand again, pointing it at the cup he caused it to lift itself into the air.

'I can do that,' Lily said, as if it was a simple, everyday thing that Professor Slughorn was performing in front of them.

'Really?' Professor Slughorn was so shocked the cup fell from the air and broke on the floor. 'Yes, I'll show you.' Lily answered. With a wave of professor Slughorn's wand the pieces joined themselves back together and the cup jumped itself into Lily's outstretched hand. Concentrating hard, Lily lifted it slowly of her hand and into the air. When it reached about six feet up Lily caused the cup to move around the room, gaining confidence and speed as it went, until it had done a full lap of the room and then she lowered it back down neatly onto the saucer.

'Bravo! Well done! That was one of the best pieces of wand-less magic I've seen done in a long time.' Professor Slughorn applauded her. 'And a muggle-born too, all the more impressive! Yes, well, very advanced indeed…' he carried on muttering to himself, eyes fixed on Lily in almost adoration. 'In fact, I would like to invite you to be part of a little group I run. It's for helping students make good connections with fellow successful students and old boys and girls I still have a few connections with. Yes I think you'd fit in quite well there.' Professor Slughorn said patting Lilly on the shoulder. Her parents were looking quite impressed and pleased with Lily. She had never completely fitted in at school and now here was a teacher saying that she could become a part of an elitist group in this new school. The magic that both the professor and Lily had performed in front of them seemed to be persuading them, at least for the moment, that Hogwarts was a real school.

This was the reaction that Lily had been expecting from her parents from the start, and now looking up at their smiling faces Lily remembered what Severus had said about her letter.

'Excuse me Sir,' Lily started hesitantly, 'but my friend Severus said something about a letter from Hogwarts.'

'Of cause, of cause,' I nearly forgot it, here you go.' Professor Slughorn said handing Lily a large envelope addressed in green ink.

"Lily Evans

The room on the right

17 Dartmouth Rd.

Cokeworth, England, CW8 3GE"

* * *

Lily barely dared to open her letter, and so for the next few days it sat on her desk sealed shut. It was now Christmas Eve, and Lily lay on her bed looking at the think heavy parchment deciding that Severus ought to be with her when she opened it. He was the one to tell her that she was a witch, and he had said that he wouldn't be getting his until the summer holidays, when Lily's parents needed to have responded by.

 **This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:**

 **Harry Potter by J K Rowling**

 **Beauty and the Beast first published version by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740.**

 **The Tales of Beadle the Bard (The Fountain of Fair Fortune) by J K Rowling**

 **Third Year at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton**

 **I Can Do That – A Corus Line**


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